Elysium
by Draechaeli
Summary: Post End of Eva. Shinji can't forget Kaoru,and become the new Adam. Tabris Falls, but can he fall fast enough to save Shinji from himself. Together will they rise far enough to reach Elysium? KaoXShi, TojiXHik, depression
1. Joshou

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Author's Note: I started another fic, oh well. This takes place after Shin Seiki Evangelion, Gekijou-ban: Air/ Magokoro Wo, Kimi Ni (the End of Evangelion). This is a SHOUNEN-AI(Boys Kissin' and Cuddlin') and could possibly be YAOI (Graphic Sex Between Guys) And of course this means Tabris/Shinji or Kaoru/Shinji or if you want 17th Angel/Shinji and Touji/Hikari there may be others. Oh and so you know I am not religious I just wikipedia-ed Lilith and got enthralled and hence this fic named Fall. Happy Reading!

-Na

Tenraku

Joshou (Prologue)

It was a wonder that she hadn't fallen, for she was the embodiment of everything it meant to fall. Angels fell for their love of the human kind and there want of free will. And that is who she is the angel of free will, Tabris.

For an angel she was rare and while all the others worshiped god because they knew no other, she did on her own accord. While others were created with some semblance of gender, she was given a choice. Time passed quickly and Tabris did not know what Tabris should be male or female, till one day god looked at Tabris and said, "Let the humans see you as female." And so Tabris did for she loved her creator, but the sad truth was this was not how she was meant to be.

Sent to earth a male, she quickly fell in love with this other gender, and who was to be the new Adam after judgment, Ikari Shinji. Not once had he thought about his creator and that love. For now he knew the true meaning of free will.

Then came the time for Lilim the first of the Lilin The first demon child of Lilith and Asmodai, who somehow fell in god's graces and became the Angel of Intelligence. Who of course saw that god's new Adam would not be so happy with this Eve. So that sneaky devil brought two poor souls who would have never had their chance together away from the destruction so as not to be noticed by god. And there Horaki Hikari and Suzahara Touji awoke in each others arms, the last two descendents of Adam and Eve, able to procreate. Now they were not the only humans left alive for the Lilin followed none of God's orders, and fighting for survival rebuilt the city.

Now there was a long pause as Lilim and Tabris watch Ikari Shinji laid down his tired body he could not kill the German, she was the only friend he had left. Shinji did love her as a sister he never had, or should he say Asuka was just like a sister he never knew he had?

The two just laid there for a few moments and as god bade Asuka to do. Although perhaps she was the wrong choice, for she perhaps was a bit too much like Lilith. And Shinji well under the right circumstance there was no comparison, but he is no Adam. Asuka a rather dominating daughter of Eve came to realize that she would have to come to terms with what she thought her feelings for the young Ikari were. Pulling up her tired body the young red head dragged herself towards Shinji and half collapsed upon him. There was another moment of pause, red brushed across the boy's cheeks awaiting the tell-tale "pervert". But it never happened, instead she lifted her head and than leaned down for a sweet kiss.

Shinji's cheek grew flush, a picture of an angel who told the brunette many times that he loved him flashed in his mind. And here above the brunette was some female who was never nice and seemed to be taking their relationship the wrong way and way to fast, about to kiss him. Shinji turned his head to the side, he did not want this, what he wanted was, "Kaoru…"

That single word seemed to verberate through all existence, and Tabris fell. Now the grand creator never wanted his angels to fall and therefore never granted them their wish that made them clip their wings.

A white feather that glinted silver fell centimeters from blue eyes. As the fallen angel was waking up with nothing left; half way around the world, Shinji scrambled out from under the German; feather in hand. He ran to sanctuary, the apartment of Nagisa Kaoru.

Author's Note: So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	2. Ichi

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: I renamed the fic formally known as Tenraku or Fall is now Elysium. You might understand better if you read the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-ichi

Red eyes fluttered open, vision obscured by silver locks. Raising a shaking pale arm to swipe the hair from his eyes he was able to focus on his surroundings. Looking around the palely-lit room, which was clouded in a hazy blue-grey from the artificial lights outside of the window. Taking in the white walls, of the single room, that he currently resided in. He noticed the kitchenette to his right; that is when he realized he was lying on a western style bed with clean crisp white sheets.

Sitting up Tabris registered the cold in his naked body moving to wrap his wings around his body for warmth, all he felt was an increasing ache in his back- his wings were gone; a single white feather, his feather, lay beside him. Now trying to place himself he glanced at the beside table to see his United States ID card for NERV along with a bankcard- Zürich International Bank, of course- The world could end and Switzerland would be unaffected.

Glancing around the room once more he took in the single bed, bedside table, card table, single chair, mini refrigerator, the telephone, and the hot plate. There was no doubt this had been his assigned room once he had be revived, the next morning he had been sent to Japan and Shinji.

Supposedly after the American branch had gotten their hands on Gendo's files on the successful cloning of Ikari, Shinji including the successful gene splicing that had changed the XY of Shinji from Yui and Gendo to the XX of Ayanami, Rei from Yui. They had tried to duplicate a success, and failed. Until they flat out cloned Ikari, Shinji and thus Nagisa, Kaoru was created. He and Rei were perfect clones with the single exception of the albino trait that seemed to be a side affect of a stable body.

The explosion that was caused by Evangelion Unit 04's Super Solenoid engine collapsing in Nevada had also destroyed a good portion of the facility that Nagisa, Kaoru was being created in, a mere day before he was to open his eyes for the first time. Which unfortunately set everything back, and that was why he had been in this Las Vegas apartment for only a night before SEELE called him.

And now he was back in this his first home, or more appropriately- living space, all he wanted to do was leave. Leave and go to Toukyou-3- _4_? And see his Shinji the poor boy that had made him fall, had caused the pain in his back and heart. Thinking for a moment he realized by plane he was fourteen hours away from where he wanted to be. Not to mention he had fallen in to Las Vegas the city of perpetual gambling in the only American, state that prostitution was legal; Las Vegas- Sin city. Really he did not find Kami-sama's sense of humor, or perhaps it was just irony, amusing.

Bypassing the cold, Tabris moved towards his 'kitchen' table and the telephone planning on immediately calling what was left of Nerv and being in Toukyou in sixteen hours or less. Picking up the receiver he dialed the number that had been burned into Nagisa, Kaoru's mind along with full working knowledge of Japanese, no doubt to silently brag to Ikari, Gendo.

"The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. Both communications and public transportation systems are currently down. There will be a minimum of… 368 days… twenty hours and… two minutes until they are operational again. If there is an emergency a relief volunteer should be nearby, look for workers in a florescent green vest. Thank you. …. Diese Nummer ist-" Growling Tabris threw the phone down and paced towards his sink looking out the solitary window there.

Looking at the ruins of the nearby building an odd box on the side of every building caught his attention. So that was where the automated message had come from. But something as this would have taken time to erect. Hadn't he fallen the day the world essentially ended? How long had he been asleep?

At that moment he needed answers and he wasn't sure where NERV was. Moving towards the small closest that he knew he left at least one outfit in. He was disappointed to find that the only clothes he had were those that the doctors had sent him here for the first time in; slippers, light cotton pants, and a shirt that tied in the back. Getting dressed the fallen angel sighed it would seem he would first need to get clothes and perhaps food since he would be here for awhile.

Picking up the bank card, Tabris smiled Zürich International Bank would have to know where to find one of their worldwide clients, and if that failed surely NERV would be tracking all their accounts. With a new hope he left the apartment humming Ode an die Freude. One day he would thank Switzerland; such strength from such a small and often overlooked country.

----------

---An unknown amount of time has passed, for Shinji (and since I won't know until I write it)---

----------

A brown haired figure lay looking up at the western style bed, above him. The night before he could not bring himself to sleep in the bed for this really wasn't his home. Actually he never slept in the bed, only occasionally would he fall upon it in a whimpering heap, taking in the fresh clean scent of Kaoru that hung there more than anywhere else in the apartment.

_Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen  
Durch des Himmels Prächt'gen Plan,  
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,  
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen._

Those lines, those words, this song _Ode an die Freude,_ he always seemed to come to consciousness, for these lines in the morning every morning. He had long ago put all of Kaoru's music on to his SDAT, or perhaps it was yesterday? Did the words really bring him to consciousness, since they had described what Kaoru had done, or did they just affirm that he was dead? That he too would fall soon at the creator's feet and wander the heavens in search of his tenshi. And the explanation that he knew when the time came he would never ask for.

He supposed the simple question of alive or dead, hell or heaven would be answered soon. Although there were no communications or transportation currently, there was school. In the beginning it was just him, Toji, Hikari, Auska, and some kids in the younger or older classes making the grand total ten, ten students ages six to eighteen. If Pen Pen came into his room soon, than he knew he was alive, and there was school.

Pen Pen, wherever _she_ had sent him Shinji didn't know but he suddenly showed up here in this apartment. He remembered that morning, afternoon, night? Perhaps it was an hour ago? When the blue eyed boy went to go into the bathroom, when suddenly the door opened and there was Pen Pen, much the same as when they had first met.

The penguin seemed to on his own freewill become Shinji's keeper. The first thing that had changed in the apartment was the knives and the razors blades (That Shinji didn't need for any conventional purpose) were removed. Shinji had no appetite and if he were left to his own devices starvation and cutting would be at a draw, for his life. But Pen Pen somehow bought broth and rice, for Shinji.

Once Horaki their Iinchou, saw how little he ate she started making him a bento everyday. When she had asked him why he was often late for class, he didn't answer. Actually he didn't even recollect that particular conversation, or any for that matter. All he did know was that every school day Horaki and Suzahara, along with some others he wasn't sure exactly who they were picked him up and took him to school.

So he supposed that he wasn't dead, because surly if he was- he would be able to see Kaoru, the angle would have greeted with open arms a long time ago. He had to think that perhaps that was why the cuts on his wrist were white scars now, and not an endless flow of blood. He needed to see Kaoru again and thus he needed to go to heaven away from the Lilin and this Hell.

The shouji to the bedroom slid open, blue eyes non-blinking didn't register anything until the plastic container hit him on the nose. A single hand then rose rubbing his abused nose before the blue eyes deeply studied said hand. Looking for who knew what perhaps blood or the hand itself. Pen Pen didn't know or care he just needed Shinji to get up, for who knew if the boy ever slept. So the penguin began to push and prod the underweight boy until with a sigh he rose shakily to his feet.

Bending down the red sleeping shirt slipped over the head of brown, as a lithe hand picked up the bottle of chicken bouillon that had been thrown at him. Moving into the kitchen he set the bouillon down on the counter. Quickly rinsing the pot from the previous day out, he filled it with water, adding the appropriate amount of rice and bouillon covering the pot he left the kitchen knowing that Pen Pen wouldn't let it boil over.

Walking back through the apartment; which he kept meticulously clean, a feat that was not all that hard to maintain. It had taken a while, he believed, before he came to the decision to unpack all of Kaoru's things that were in boxes when he arrived. Or more like Pen Pen tore through the boxes looking for the pots and pans. And Shinji cleaned up after the penguin, and unpacked the rest of the angel's things. His own belongings he retrieved while Auska wasn't at home, they were still in their boxes, for this was not his apartment.

Slowly the young man, boy? He had lost count years ago, even before Kaoru. It wasn't like he knew what a birthday was. Slowly he got dressed in his school uniform, for a long moment he stood there in his black pants and hugged the fifth child's favored orange undershirt to his naked torso.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, never used for sleep the lonely human fell to the side, brown hair that had grown considerably in the time since he last cared, or perhaps more time had elapsed then he had realized. For the brown locks, a few centimeters longer than what Kaoru's were when he was- alive, fanned across the white pillow.

Reaching under the pillow thin fingers curled around the white feather, that although used and worn, with pieces missing in great chunks still glinted, an unearthly silver. As if warranting the hope that lived in his heart, but ate at his soul. Or perhaps he was dead, surely that was clearer reasoning and he had made a mistake somewhere and this was hell. The feather glowed with false hope.

Curling tighter in on himself orange t-shirt and feather in hand, blue eyes clenched shut, silent crystalline tears streaked down the reddened cheeks. There was a knock at the door, so he was alive- in a way. A sound that Shinji had trained himself to hear after Pen Pen woke him. Slowly uncurling the brunette sat up.

Placing the feather under the pillow and carefully folding the orange shirt and placing it back in its spot across the back of the desk chair. Shinji deftly finished dressing and went to answer the door. Simply opening the door to his guests, than turned to the kitchen. Finding the warm rice and broth he poured it into a travel mug, which left the other half to Pen Pen. Mug in hand he picked up his bag; leaving the flightless bird that wouldn't let him die to follow those who also wouldn't let him die either.

Sitting in his seat blue eyes followed the energetic elementary children as they laughed. A high pitched semi-screech covered the laughter in his ears- Auska. He knew whatever hurtful words she was currently uttering, were meant as a jibe to simply get him to react.

No one knew why Shinji was even there, he didn't speak everyone assumed he was mute after the Third Impact. Being that they were at ground zero the area was to be the last to be redeveloped. The people living, there had no way of leaving so they made by as they could, this meant no specialty doctors to help the third child. The best medical advice given to the school said that social interaction might be good, but don't expect much academically.

So the day went by; the teacher talked and everyone worked. And the only thing that Shinji registered was the food being forced upon him. Hashi in hand he ate slowly as to not upset his stomach, for the chances that the bento that Hikari made for him revisited him was high.

Once Shinji was safely in his sanctuary, he let out a sigh of relief this was a time he was alone, Pen Pen was out- where ever a penguin went, he didn't know, but Shinji was alone. Moving to the bedroom, Shinji kneeled down on his futon which he forgot to roll up that morning, and took the cello out from under Kaoru's bed.

He had found that Kaoru owned both violin and cello, although to his knowledge the tenshi could only play the former. About the time Kaoru first came to NERV the organization was being pushed saying that they didn't care for the children a string quartet had come to mind. Kaoru had died before the first practice. Since Kaoru was first violin, Auska second violin, Rei viola, and Shinji cello; they couldn't become a triplet from the 'trauma' of loosing the lead violinist.

Upon finding the cello, Shinji spent much of his time teaching himself the favored, Ode an die Freude. Using his SDAT on repeat to learn the notes slowly, and now after who knew how long he could, and did play the song perfectly. The lyrics the only German he knew, although he wasn't sure if he ever looked up a translation or not, he would think-sing since he didn't speak.

Putting the bow to string he began to play the introduction. No, the last word he spoke, would be the first he would utter- _Kaoru_. And if the boy never returned, or Shinji never gets to go to him; than he would be mute- _Kaoru_. But the melody in the air, the words in his head, made his heart fill with hope- _Kaoru_.

_Freude, Schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,   
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!_

Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt…

Author's Note: Please no arguments on my explanation for the cloning or gene splicing. Since Yui was turned to LCL there would be inadequate DNA samples for cloning. And I am a FORENSIC Archaeology major that is theoretically possible, near impossible but Gendo is a determined bastard. And so you know all my German I learned in Switzerland (my penname is Swiss-German) so I have some Swiss pride in me. So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	3. Ni

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-ni

Blue eyes blinked, when he was hit with the container of bouillon once again. This time though as he rolled off of the futon and moved to make breakfast at the insistent penguins prodding; he had a new theory, or he supposed that it could be an old theory. Anyway the theory was he was on an endless repeat like his SDAT.

Well if he was on repeat he supposed that meant he had to actually go and make the morning meal he would drink on the way to class. When was the last time there was a Sunday anyways? It seemed that every morning that broke he had to go to school, when was the last time he had a day off- a Sunday?

Perhaps he thought, as he filled the pan with water, he slept through Sunday for he had to sleep at one point, and at current he didn't know when that was. Putting the appropriate amount of the beef powder and rice into the pan he turned and left the concoction to cook.

Pulling on his black pants, Shinji only had one leg on before he realized that if he was on repeat than he was never going to get his Sunday. Deciding to rebel against the pause-less week, Shinji finished putting on his pants before retrieving Kaoru's violin and his own SDAT.

Taking the violin from its case as if it were a new born babe, the brunette lay it carefully on it's owner's bed before Shinji started his SDAT the music loader than the normal, as to drown out the one noise he trained himself to hear; a knock.

Laying down on the bed one hand reached under the pillow to clutch desperately at the much loved white angel feather. The other moved to stroke the strings of the violin, so gently that they didn't even vibrate a note. But there in his ears, his heart, his soul; rung with the words:

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein!_

Pen Pen opened the door for Suzahara and Horaki, they both looked down at the penguin and then at each other. The Iinchou sighed, "I'll go get his breakfast a bag he might not be dressed again."

Suzahara nodded and walked towards the bedroom almost surprised to be able to hear Ode an die Freude. Not so much the song or even the volume but the volume coming from the small SDAT. Looking around the room he tried to think of some way to reach the topless boy. What he needed was something of Kaoru's that Shinji coveted; picking up the orange undershirt from the desk chair he though a moment.

If he threw the shirt at the dazed boy on the bed than he would hug it and not move, Toji knew this since it had happened once before. But wrinkling it and dangling it just out of the mute's reach should give the desired outcome.

Blue eyes widened hands gently yet swiftly let go of their treasures as Shinji sat up and reached for the wrinkled shirt being held high by a prosthetic arm. Moving swiftly from the bed Shinji meticulously folded the orange shirt while Toji put the violin away. When the quiet brunette began to head for the bed once more, the taller boy threw the remaining clothes at him and pushed him out the door.

As the group walked to school they talked excitedly, while Shinji sipped his breakfast. He wasn't listening to their chatter although he probably should have.

"I can't wait the movie theater reopens tonight!" exclaimed Hikari.

Suzahara nodded, "Yes, and I finally get to see that new horror film that was suppose to air the night of the Third Impact."

"Not something scary," complained the brunette girl.

Wrapping his non-prosthetic arm around the girl's waist he said, "We'll go see the romance flick you want to see too. And then I will spend the night at your house and if you get scared then you can wake me from the 'oh so comfortable' sofa."

Enthusiastically the girl nodded and then glanced back at the boy quietly sipping his soup, "Should we invite Ikari-kun?" Her boyfriend just shrugged his shoulders as they continued on their way to school.

When the group arrived at school, one of the younger boys in the class a ten year old named Kagura ran up to Shinji crying, "Shinji-onii-san, I told Auska-onee-san that I thought I loved another boy in our class. And she told me it was a bad thing to do and I would end up like you onii-san!"

No one expected a reaction to this whatsoever, not even the little boy in tears. But Shinji had that way of surprising people. Falling to his knees Hikari first thought that the brunette Eva pilot was hurt. But when he enveloped the young boy in a tight hug; his message was sent across loud and clear.

Whispering his thanks Kagura pulled away from the elder boy and they all walked into the half destroyed remains of the old school.

School seemed to once more be the exact same for Shinji, except his protest and want for a Sunday continued his SDAT was on extremely loud. After repeated attempt to get the boy to turn the volume down, Iinchou took the SDAT and turned the volume down. For the rest of the day there were no further 'outbursts' from the silent ex-Eva pilot.

Sadly though what was left of the school board and NERV had come to an executive decision, regarding one Ikari, Shinji. Unless by some miracle the boy began to speak once more, this was his last week of school. He would be hospitalized after that in the half-rebuilt NERV hospital wing. Of course Shinji had been informed of this decision that he had four days till Sunday and that of which he would be hospitalized. But if he actually knew any of this information was anyone's guess.

When school finally let out, Shinji simply followed Suzahara and Horaki, expecting for them to drop him off at the apartment of Nagisa, Kaoru like they had done every other day that began by being hit with a container of bouillon.

Shinji didn't even realize that they were walking in the opposite direction until Suzahara removed the brunette boy's Zürich International Bank card only to put it away again. In celebration of the theater reopening and since no one really had money in the area the first movie was free.

Not even registering that he was missing his first trip to the movie theater in Toukyou-3, no his first trip to the movie theater that his memory could allow recollection for he didn't take notice to. Nor did he notice Hikari's horrified shriek, or Toji's well placed distraction.

After paying to see four more films which were all the films currently salvaged. They all went home and to bed. In the sort of daze that accompanied his days Shinji stumbled into the apartment at which he was staying and flopped down on his futon sneakers and all. Ready to begin his restless or restful night, for his mind stopped registering either long ago, or perhaps it was yesterday?

A tall figure smiled as he walked into the apartment of Nagisa, Kaoru, he was met abruptly by the sixty centimeter tall figure of the highly intelligent penguin, known none other as Pen Pen. Smiling down at the flightless bird the figure said, "Arigatou, you have done a fine job watching over him for me."

Placing the plastic grocery bags on the counter the man moved to check on the sleeping silent boy he was to take care of. Shaking his head at the sight presented to him, he bent down over the figure removing the shoes and the SDAT, followed by his shirts and pants.

Pulling back the covers of the bed and removing the feather from under the pillow, he picked up the pale boxer clad boy and tucked him into the bed. Folding the brunette's school clothes and rolling up the futon, the man placed the SDAT and feather on the bedside table.

Shinji became aware in a hazy warm silence; but it was never silent, was it? No he could hear humming and feel soft fingers brushing through his hair. He tried to open his eyes but they seemed too slow because by the time the blue eyes focused the room was silent and empty. No Pen Pen, no bouillon, no music, and the next thing he noticed was that he was in Kaoru's bed in only his boxers.

Turning an impressive shade of red the boy felt as if he had defiled Kaoru's bed by sleeping in it. Hurriedly the brunette got out of bed and made it to perfection finding the feather nearby he placed it under the pillow before he got dressed. SDAT in hand the boy clad in his school uniform left the bedroom and made his way to the kitchen.

Wondering what happened to Pen Pen and his usual wake up call, Shinji entered the kitchen. There on the counter next to his backpack was a bento wrapped in a music note cloth his usual breakfast already in travel mug and his school bag. Before he could think to question anything there was a knock at the door.

Answering the door Shinji saw a panting Suzahara and Horaki, the boy said, "We overslept, if we don't hurry we'll be late."

Shinji went inside and retrieved the things that were laid out for him and then returned to the door holding up the bento. Hikari smiled, "Oh good Pen Pen got you a bento I had no time to make any this morning. Now come on or we'll be late!" They ran all the way to the school Shinji had no time to sip his broth and rice but they were able to make it a few seconds before the bell rang.

Once in the semi-sanctuary of his seat the brunette ex-Evangelion pilot kept his blue eyes on his desk going over all the things that had happened that morning. There was no way that time would distort so that today seemed to never happen. He tried to focus on the humming and the fingers that had been in his hair that morning.

Shinji didn't even notice the tall new albino student with silver-grey hair enter the class room. Nor did he hear the teacher introduce, "Angelo, Tabris."

Perhaps he thought in his insane head it was all some sort of trick of mind. And the people who help Pen Pen left the food since they needed the penguin for something. And- and- and someone was humming _Ode an die Freude_. And that humming sounded familiar.

Blue eyes lifted from the wood of the desk and met with all too familiar red eyes. There was a pause, Shinji's breath caught. "Kaoru!" the boy croaked, tears welling in his eyes. Swiftly the ex-pilot stood and flew to the front of the room and into the outstretched arms of the one he loved.

Catching the broken boy in a tight hug Kaoru stopped humming and began to sing the verse he left off at:

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein!_

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele  
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!  
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle  
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!...

Author's Note: If you read my other fics you'll find that I have a few OC named Kagura, Chiaki, and Takeru those are my favorite male Japanese names, guess the names of the totally cute little kids in this fic are named? Did anyone guess it was Tabris who put Shinji to bed and made him breakfast? So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	4. San

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

Auska speaks German in this chapter the translation for said German is at the end of the paragraph in parenthesizes.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-san

As the angelic voice faded the words still hung in the air, the classroom was silent for a moment. Suddenly the room filled with the din of chatter, of confused questions. The teacher a usual oblivious man to his surroundings and his students stood there, mouth agape at the two males standing near him.

The rising chatter, the insistent questioning; pulled the teacher back to his senses, "Did he just speak? Show of hands, who heard him speak? Even if it was just a word or a sound no one understood," The room albeit filled mostly with empty desks seemed to become a sea of raised hands, it was unanimous- Shinji spoke for the first time in nearly three years, "all right If you two would take your seats please I'll continue with the lesson."

The taller boy with silver-grey hair nodded and tried to pick his bag up off the ground, but there was a brunette head buried tightly in the crook of his neck. Chuckling softly he pushed the boy away enough to bend and pick up his school bag. And once Tabris had bag in hand his free arm snuck around the lithe waist and pulled the boy closer once more.

Tabris walked towards the desk that Shinji had been present at not to long ago. Placing his bag down; the fallen angel pulled out the chair and sat down, immediately pulling the brunette into his lap. Ex-Eva pilot of unit 01 didn't complain, or squirm; a blush didn't even grace his cheeks. He simply settled into the lap wrapping arms around the neck to tangle fingers in silver hair and burry his own brunette head in the pale neck.

The teacher stuttered a moment but then decided not to comment on the boys' choice of seating arrangements for this was the most reaction he had seen from Ikari in years. Instead he decided he would call for an attendant to send for a Nerv representative. One of the younger males in the class with brown hair was smiling widely at the two sharing a chair while also stealing glances at the object of his own affections a boy with dark violet hair. Towards the back of the class sat a fiery redheaded German girl, her hands gripped the edge of the desk knuckles turning white.

Once the teacher returned he stood in front of the class, seeing that nothing had changed he returned to the lesson, his mindless droning. Tabris sat there one hand buried in brown locks rubbing gently at the boys scalp, the other hand ran tracks up and down his spine. Occasionally the pale lips would whisper soft words of love in the near by ear or simply hum. The silver haired boy could swear he was close to heaven, and he should know, even as he listened to the lecture with only half an ear.

Shinji seemed to be there and then at the same time farther away then any other time. And while he paid the teacher no mind, nor any of the other students, he still clutched to his Kaoru like some sort of estranged lifeline. He was closer to the reality of his own life more now then ever in the last few years; and yet he was in some fantasy where he was nearly fifteen not nearly eighteen.

When the Lunch break rolled around Horaki approached Tabris and Shinji, behind her were Suzahara and Auska, "Ano… hello Angelo-san I'm the Iinchou Horaki, Hikari, and this is Suzahara, Toji and Souryuu, Auska. We are friends of Ikari-kun's and we usually eat lunch with him, so we wanted to know if you would like to join us."

Red eyes brightened the smile on the pale lips grew, "Of course." The hand that was on Shinji's back, fell away to pick up two bento that were on the floor by the desk. The hand that had been sifting through brown locks slipped down to the boy's lower back and with the slightest amount of pressure there he gadded the slighter male off his lap. Once they were both standing Tabris' arm went possessively around Shinji's waist. They followed Hikari out of the room.

The group sat underneath a large tree with lush green leaves since, there were no longer any seasons the trees were not budding as were the normal less then two decades ago. Tabris leaned against the tree a life form closer to his own age; he stretched his long legs out and leaned his head back to look at the bright blue sky through the leaves. The brunette boy settled comfortably between the angel's legs and leaned back into his chest. This earned a growl from the redhead.

Three sets of eyes watched as the music note wrapped bento was placed in the silent boy's lap. The bento was unwrapped by the new student, carefully it was opened and the hashi were taken in the long pale fingers, "I hope you like it Shinji, I made I just for you."

Those words actually made the boy blush, but the most likely reason was actually because of the glare the Auska was giving the two. Either way Tabris picked up some omelet and rice and placed the hashi near Shinji's mouth. Slowly the brunette opened his mouth and slowly bite-by-bite Tabris fed the two of them.

"Angelo-san how do you know Ikari-kun?" asked Hikari after silently watching the ex-pilots eat about half the bento before them.

"I was the fifth child to replace the second child when her sink ratio went below zero," replied the silver haired boy.

"But Shinji called you 'Kaoru' so aren't you a Tenshi that Shinji killed?" accused Auska.

Tabris sighed, "I was sent with an ulterior motive by the Father, and Seele. When I fell in love with Shinji I knew I couldn't complete my task and allowed him to… capture me. I returned to the Father where I fell from his graces and moved back to my first home in Las Vegas Nevada USA. After the third impact I wanted to return to Shinji but all communications and transportations were down. It took a year for them to rebuild both on a national level and two years for international. Not including the relief trucks the brought produce and supplies into Toukyou-3 it took nearly three for Toukyou-3 to be open for travel I with a few NERV representatives are the first to arrive here. So yes I hurt Shinji in the past, yes I did go by the alias Nagisa Kaoru, but I am obviously not dead." All through his little speech long fingers slowly stroked from Shinji's left ear down his neck to the collar of his shirt and back up again.

"Yes, well as Iinchou, I thought I should tell you that it is customary for students in Nihon to take notes on the lectures in class," quickly put in Hikari smoothing out her skirt.

Cocking his head to one side so grey strands fell across red eyes he questioned, "Why? Why must one listen to a lecture on the past when they are living in the direct results of said past?"

"I… ano… demo…" the freckled girl muttered.

"He's right Hikari, I think," said Toji placing a hand on hers, "I don't take notes in class barely anyone does except maybe you."

"What you should be telling him," stated Auska hotly, "is they shouldn't be sharing a seat in class."

Horaki nodded, "Auska is right Tabris-kun you and Ikari-kun shouldn't share a seat."

"Why? He believes that he is in a dream or perhaps he has died I should reassure Shinji that I am really here, besides it makes him happy and I want him to be happy. So you shouldn't address him by his last name, he doesn't like it," countered the albino brushing hair from his red eyes, before packing up the bento remains. No one had seen either boy eat so much in a single meal. Tabris had used a lot of ginger to help settle Shinji's stomach upon consumption, and they still had about a half of the second bento left.

"Why are you here Kaoru?" asked Auska her voice quiet yet threatening.

"The day of the third impact he called for me and so I have come," replied the fifth child smiling brightly.

The second child grew red with anger, "You said it yourself we have no communications!"

"And you heard him call 'Kaoru' after he tried to kill you, when you tried to kiss him," replied Tabris his face devoid of emotion, a finger still stroking the skin at the boys neck.

The German's jaw dropped, _"Sie sind ein Engel! _How else could you have known? You know you can't be with him _Gott_ doesn't allow it!" (You are an angel!; God)

"That day in terminal dogma only one of us would have survived the embodiment of Nagisa Kaoru or Ikari Shinji. And yet if I had won then Kami-sama's Adam and Eve would have been lost, Lilim could not have medaled. So Nagisa Kaoru would have died as well. But I was glad Shinji defeated 02, he deserved to live, and be happy, and thus here I am. For sin I have, sin I will; but I have fallen and can fall no further."

Auska huffed and stood up, "I don't understand you! Do you even understand yourself?" before she received an answer she stomped back into the school followed swiftly by Hikari and Toji.

Slowly and leisurely the two boys got up and went back into the school. The rest of the school day seemed to pass by almost uneventful, with the two boys sharing a seat. The NERV representative a brunette woman with her hair pulled back in a ponytail her hard brown eyes trained on the boys.

When school let out the room emptied except for the Iinchou and the ex-pilots who were held back by the mysterious woman, "So I see you really did have a positive effect on him Tabris."

"Hai," replied the angel.

The woman gazed at all of the children, "Pilot Souryuu, Pilot Suzahara, Pilot Shinji, I am a NERV representative originally stationed in England but recently sent to Nevada for Tabris, where I had to listen to the brat ask about Nihon and Shinji for a year," She bit the last part albeit smiling fondly at the silver-haired boy, "anyways my name is Kaji Yayoi."

"Kaji? Like…" Auska trailed off.

"Hai, NERV has a thing for family members," replied Yayoi, "Now what are you two going to do today, and mind you I need to hear Shinji speak for myself or he will still be institutionalized."

The pale smile seemed to grow, the arm around the brunette tightened, "We are going to get Shinji's hair cut and then go home, eat the left over bento, and go to bed."

Brown eyes focused on the silent boy, "Is this true Shinji?"

Everything was silent except for the low humming of Tabris, blue eyes lifted to meet brown, "Hai." Yayoi smiled and let the children- young adults leave.

Tabris had stopped humming but Shinji picked up the humming and the angelic voice began to sing:

_Freude trinken alle Wesen  
An den Brüsten der Natur;  
Alle Guten, alle Bösen  
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur._

Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,  
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;  
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,  
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott....

Author's Note: Yayoi is like the only NERV person that will show up. So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	5. Shi

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

I hope you enjoy this chapter. **I am working at a Summer Camp starting very soon. I should be able to get a few writing hours in a day, unless I don't have an outlet for my laptop. But I won't be able to post anything (most likely) until the end of summer. But the happy news I'll have like 100 chapters for you guys!** ;D

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-shi

As much as Tabris wanted to get Shinji's hair cut, he was dreading the whole experience. It wasn't some estranged fear of his or anything like that; no it was the death grip on his arm. He had tried to put his arm around the shaggy-haired brunette, but instead of succeeding in his goal, the fallen angel's arm was taken in a death grip. So now the question was, would Shinji let go of Tabris long enough to get his hair cut?

Shinji wasn't letting go, no this had to be the best dream in existence. The fact that he could point out that he was asleep and still remember every blessed detail of the wonderful dream was a miracle. It had veered the normal week, or day, or whatever that thing was before this—whatever this was—happened. He wondered if he would now know time. But the slow realization dawned on him; there was no sense of time in a dream, six months in Nod can occur in as little as a couple hours. So time could only return if he woke up, and he didn't want to wake up. Shinji's grip tightened on the pale arm in his grasp, he wanted to die here, with Kaoru.

Entering the barber shop, Tabris had the quick thought to cut Shinji's hair himself, but he had never done anything like that before, and thus continued farther into the shop. The shop was bare except an elderly barber who turned a kind face on the two that entered the shop, "Hello, how may I help you?"

Tabris riffled through Shinji's backpack as best he could until he pulled out a wallet and the very old NERV access card, "My friend here needs a haircut that looks like this."

The ID card changed hands and the barber nodded, "Well, come on Ikari-san." The brunette made no move to show that he heard the man, that his name was ever called. The barber's eyes shifted between the two boys, trying to piece together what was going on.

"He suffers from a great deal of war trauma, could you cut his hair while I hold his hand?" asked Tabris, not sure how the request would be taken.

The barber nodded and led the two boys over to the chair in front of the sink so that he could wash Shinji's shaggy hair. The man stood back and watched Tabris with Shinji. The grey haired youth had to pry his arm free only to immediately take hold of the needy, grabby hand. The brunette was sat down in the chair, he looked like he was about to cry. In a very soft voice close to the pilot of unit 01's ear the angel whispered, "We're going to get your hair cut. But first this nice man is going to wash your hair. Don't worry I'll hold your hand the whole time, I won't leave you Shinji."

The brunette barley nodded, a pout heavy on his lips, eyes seemed to almost be brimming with tears. Tabris squeezed the hand in his, in reassurance; than he turned to the barber and nodded his head. The barber by this point decided that Shinji needed to be treated like a child, minus the comforting babble, since that obviously didn't penetrate the brunette's skull. Tipping the chair back slowly, the barber turned on the water and waited for it to warm up and for Shinji to get used to the sound.

Slowly and carefully Shinji's hair was washed, the brunette himself wasn't having fun, he did not understand the reason for the haircut. But he took in deep breaths and gripped Kaoru's hand tightly to remind himself, that it was only a mini nightmare inside a heavenly dream. And if Kaoru wanted him to get his hair washed by a stranger, and not the normal prodding by a penguin, and then get his hair cut then he would trust Kaoru, with his life. But at this moment, for the life of him he couldn't quite remember the concept of a haircut.

So when Shinji was stood, and wrapped in a smock, he began to mildly panic in his own confusion. He was sat down in a new chair, his hand white knuckled around Kaoru's, whose fingers were turning red; Kaoru began to hum.

Shinji began to relax and the barber quickly and efficiently cut the shaggy hair and restored it to the once clean cut state. As soon as the barber was done Tabris scooped up his love and sat down in the barber chair with Shinji in his lap, "I'm sorry we'll be just a moment."

The elderly man nodded and smiled, before he began to sweep up the hair on the floor, occasionally turning the chair that the boys were in. When he had finished, Tabris coaxed Shinji out of the chair and they went up front to the cash register. Tabris pulled out a Zürich International Bank card not sure if it was his or Shinji's and handed it to the barber. When it came time to sign the receipt, the fallen angel left a generous tip.

The two boys left the barber shop and walked towards the Nagisa, Kaoru apartment. On the way home Tabris brought the brunette into a pharmacy. When international communications had been restored, the grey haired youth had learned of Ikari, Shinji's condition and had done a little research. There had been a study done on multi-vitamins and how they could, besides providing the body with the needed nutrients, could also help deal with depression. 1 So he wanted to pick up powdered vitamins to add to the food, it wouldn't hurt him to take some vitamins as well. 2 Once the needed vitamins were purchased, they continued on their way home.

Upon entering the apartment they found Pen Pen lounging with a magazine open, Tabris shook his head and smiled. Leading the blue eyed boy to the sofa, red eyes put down their bags and took out the remaining half of the bento from lunch. Dragging Shinji into his lap, Tabris opened the bento box looking at the omelet and rice that still remained. He lifted a piece of the yellow omelet to the boy on his lap. The brunette shook his head mouth clamped shut.

"Shinji, onegai, eat some for me," said the angel in a low soothing voice. The younger of the two sighed and opened his mouth accepting the food. The grey haired youth slowly began to feed the both of them, trying his best to give them equal proportions. When the food was gone, Tabris reached into his backpack once more and pulled out a water bottle and handed it to Shinji. This was accepted swiftly and drank like the younger hadn't drunk anything in days. Tabris smiled and removed the teenager from his lap, with an arm curled around his; he brought the dishes to the kitchen and placed them in the sink.

They moved into the bedroom, Tabris had a guiding hand on Shinji's lower back. When they entered the room Tabris surveyed the room, the area usage, but mainly the sleeping arrangement. He chuckled, would this always be a form of strife between them? Sitting the brunette in the desk chair, Tabris took pause, before stripping off his shirt both button up and orange under shirt. He handed the two warm shirts to the boy lost in his mind with a smile, and took a couple steps back, while staying within his range of sight, and humming.

Shinji shook barely but he did, he could hear the haunting humming tune of Ode an die Freude, and see Kaoru moving away from. He thought at any second that Eva 01's hand would reach out and crush the pale boy. He took a deep shaky breath, and inhaled the scent that was Kaoru, so then perhaps his brain was playing a trick on him, and Kaoru was still nearby. He watched like an old movie reel before his eyes the following events unfold.

Tabris smiled at Shinji one last time before turning to survey his western style bed. Moving to the foot of the bed he lifted the thin mattress and pulled it off towards Shinji's futon. Moving to the other end of the bed, he removed the futon from the frame and box-spring, dragging it on top of Shinji's futon. The box-spring was difficult to pull from the frame, but after much struggling he was able to prop it against the wall half blocking the door. Shuffling through his closet, Tabris removed a very small toolkit, and set about taking apart the frame. Deciding that his closet had enough room and wasn't being used for any better purpose, he slid the box-spring in behind the hanging clothes and added the pieces of frame. The ex-angel took pause and smiled once more at the boy who was watching him. Then he pulled his futon off of Shinji's and laid them side-by-side.

Walking over to Shinji, Tabris gently pried the clothes from his hands, before taking the teenager in his arms and hugging him tightly to his person. After a pregnant moment, where the two stood there holding each other. They went into the bathroom and brushed their teeth, stripped down to their boxers and went to bed.

Shinji laid there cocooned in warmth, arms wrapped protectively around his body. He was laying on his futon, and yet also Kaoru's bed, and at this point he was very confused. The most confusing bit of all was that he couldn't feel the ear bud headphones in his ears, he didn't have his SDAT in his hand, and on the contrary it was warm fabric in his grip. And yet, and yet he could hear Ode an die Freude lulling him to sleep.

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein! _

The boys slept the best sleep that either had in so many years, in really their whole lives. But Tabris forced himself from the warmth of the shared bed so that he could prepare their bags for the day. Slowly he got up, gingerly extracting himself from the other body on the bed. Tabris quietly got dressed for the day, at the—could he say ungodly hour? For he knew god did not sleep—early hour and worked to make an elaborate bento boxes. He added Ginkgo supplement to the omelet, in hopes to clear the cobwebs in Shinji's mind so he could see the truth in the reality. Ginger was added to everything to help calm the stomach of the Ikari as he ate. After the lunches were made and wrapped, Tabris began on the bouillon and rice breakfast, to which he added the multi-vitamin. He double checked their bags in the living room to make sure that everything was packed, and added the bento boxes and a couple bottles of water, before moving back to the bedroom.

Shinji could here the humming again, feel the hands sifting through his hair. This time he fought to swiftly open the eyes and see the person to wake him as gently as this. Blue eyes fluttered open into a dream, Kaoru was leaning over him smiling.

"Come on sleepy head, get dressed. If you do I'll play violin for you or with you however you prefer," said the laughing red eyes, and kind sincere face. The words penetrated Shinji, this had to be heaven, but couldn't be because he was not privileged to go there, but it still was, a dream come true. And so swiftly that it shocked the grey haired young adult Shinji was dressed, seated on the futon and holding out the violin for Tabris.

Pen Pen opened the door for Suzahara and Horaki, they blinked a couple times at the penguin before watching it walk away. They could vaguely hear the tune of Ode an die Freude drifting from the bedroom and slowly followed it. The sight that greeted them made them almost turn around and leave, allowing Shinji to skip class.

Leaning back on his arms on a double futon was Shinji, a big smile spread across his face, reaching his eyes. He was completely focused on the silver haired youth sitting in the desk chair, violin tucked snuggly under his chin, his angelic voice projecting.

_Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen  
Durch des Himmels Prächt'gen Plan,  
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,  
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen._

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Author's Note: I apologize for your long wait. So what do you think? Please review.

1 I don't know if a study has actually been done. But I'm on a migraine elimination diet (main/best thing in the diet to eat is macaroni and green apples) and I know a few very picky eaters (peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches) the list goes on, we all feel better when taking a multi-vitamin.

2 There has to be powder vitamins somewhere… if not, there is now. There is powdered headache medicine, fiber supplement, and energy junk, why not multi-vitamin?

-Na


	6. Go

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry I don't have a hundred chapters for you guys. Work was a bit more time consuming then I thought. I'm back at school, I swear this year I will update as regularly as I can. There is only eight to nine chapters left plus epilogue (I actually wrote an outline (during a boring repetitive lecture for camp training).

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-go

Tabris shuffled, roughly into the class room, with a clinging brunette. It had been about a half a week since the haircutting incident, and Shinji didn't seem to the outside world, to be any better. Moving to the far back of the class, where the two could share a seat and blatently not listen to the lecture without disturbing the rest of the class. Tabris sat down in what was now, _their _seat, which was four seats to the left of Asuka's seat. Sitting down slowly before pulling the brunette into his lap, the fallen angel sighed. He wished that he could simply pinch Shinji, to prove that the ex-Eva pilot of unit 01 was not dreaming. But sadly that might cause unwanted trauma.

Running a pale had through the short brown hair, trailing the fingers down the long neck, before messaging the shoulders of the prone boy in his lap methodically. He let the low chatter of the room, as roll was called, wash over the two; as he thought of his next move in healing his love. The fifth child ignored the roll call, neither his or Shinji's names were ever called, the Iinchou simply took note that they boys were there since they walked to school together each morning. He also usually ignored the burning blue eyes that glared menacingly at them from the left.

Turning to look briefly at the redhead and whispered lowly, "Ara, daughter of Eve, you have fallen from Adam's graces, find your solace in Lilth's arms, be one with the Lilin." Asuka's eyes widened at the words directed at her, not so much for their meaning, for the redhead did not quite understand what was said.

Returning to the brunette in his arms and the matter at hand, he lent towards the ear of his love, he whispered slow words, "Shinji-koi what do you dream of?"

Confused blue eyes gazed up into the warm, welcoming red gaze, leaning forward to get closer to the pale ear, although still burying his face in the crook of the elder's neck, a mumbled half-audible croak replied, "What do you mean Kaoru? We are in this dream."

"Ara, ara... Shinji-koi I am real," lifting up one of the other boy's hands he squeezed it gently before placing it over his heart, "feel my heart beat," Tabris let his breath move the brunette locks, "feel my breath, and hear my words. I... Kaoru is real."

There was a long pause, as the ex-replacement for Eva pilot 02, waited with abated breath. Ikari nuzzled, if possible further into the albino, inhaled the sent of the other, and sighed. The croak sounded again, "If Kaoru is real, than Shinji is dead."

Frantically Tabris pulled the younger male away from him and looked into his eyes, placing one of Shinji's hands on each of their hearts, "Iie baby, iie Shinji-koi, hearts only beat in life. See? We are alive, real."

"Then I dream," the brunette rasped; tears beading in his eyes, catching on his lashes, a single saline drop trying to roll down his cheek.

A panicked fallen angel shook his head and leaned forward to kiss the tear away. The pale lips caressed the warm flesh jut below the left blue eye. The lips lingered on the spot savoring the moment, trying to concrete their existence in those sad blue eyes.

"Angelo, Ikari!" the still broke, Tabris ripped away from Shinji and stared wide eyed at the teacher, "I will only tolerate so much from you two, this is a place of learning, such public displays of affection do not belong here."

The albino, quickly and carefully stood himself and Ikari Shinji beside the desk. He bowed and attempted to get his to be-boyfriend to bow as well, "Gomennasai onegai, we apologize it will not happen again."

"Hai, it will not happen again. If it was not time for the lunch hour, you two would be standing outside with buckets of water in your hands. Instead you will do the classroom duty for the remainder of the week," answered the teacher, subsequently dismissing the class for lunch.

Tabris straightened himself from the bow, before bending over to pick up the two music note cloth wrapped bento lunches. Wrapping an arm around Shinji he directed them to follow Hikari and Toji outside, with a grumpy Asuka following behind them.

The lunch hour found the friends under their usual tree. The fourth child was sitting close to his girlfriend holding hands, the third child between the fifth child's legs being fed, and separated slightly from the group was the second child. There was really no large group conversation as was the norm most days, Asuka glared and watched vividly as Tabris murmured softly to the boy she thought she loved.

"How can we be eating this lovely bento if we are not real?" asked Tabris as he fed Shinji a hotdog octopus.

"Dream food," was the quick and scratchy reply, "much better now that Kaoru comes to my dreams."

"Oi," Hikari said dejectedly, "my bento is not that bad!"

"See Shinji-kun, if this was a dream then Hikari wouldn't be able to get mad at you," added Toji with a laugh.

The quiet brunette shook his head and frowned before burying his face into the crook of the fallen angel's neck. The silver haired boy sighed and took the moment to eat the rest of his own bento, before coaxing his love out of his stupor to finish eating what remained of his own lunch.

When the chime for class to start again went off the five kids moved back towards the classroom and another boring lecture. With a warning glare from the teacher, Tabris took Shinji to the back of the class and sat back down.

Once the lecture resumed, this time about math Tabris whispered, "Shinji-koi do you trust me?"

"Of course, I do Kaoru, with my life," came the low scratchy reply.

"Why do you not trust me that I am real then?"

Shinji's mouth opened and stayed that way as his brain went over those words repeatedly. The brunette's internal montra was similar to that which was repeatedly whispered in his ear by red eyed boy. The constant angelic voice, whispering of trust, and faith, and dreams that were real, did not stop until the rest of the class filed out of the room at the end of the day.

Moving the two of them to the front of the room, Kaoru picked up the two chalkboard erasers and gave them to Shinji. Walking to the window and opening it. The fifth child positioned himself behind the blue eyed boy, and they clapped out the erasers together.

Shinji sneezed abruptly breaking the silence, "I must be thinking of you… dreaming of you, for you to have sneezed."

To Kaoru's surprise a raspy but logical response came, "No I sneezed from the chalk."

Grinning like mad, the silver haired boy whispered, "Well than… you do not sneeze in dreams from chalk, so we must be awake."

Moving back to the blackboard they put the erasers near the bucket of water. Dipping the sponge in the murky water, Shinji took the sponge and began to wipe the board at Tabris' insistence. Tabris followed after him with the squeegee effectively drying the board as he sung:

_Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt._

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!  
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!  
Brüder über'm Sternenzelt  
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen... 

Author's Note: I apologize for your long wait. So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	7. Roku

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Gomenasai Onegai, 对不起, Es tut mir leid, Sorry, please all my wonderful readers forgive me. This time I am seriously going to update. So as penance I gift thee with a long-ish chapter.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-roku

Shinji lay awake on the futon on the floor. Well, he didn't lay awake all night, he woke up early. And this time he knew that he had woken from his dreams. The brunette was even thinking rationally as he lay there in the silence and the hazy blue-grey air of the darkened room. First he wondered where his SDAT was, since he remembered always listening to it while he tried to sleep.

The third child was surprised to find that the fog over his own mind had lifted; he could actually remember the passing of the past few days. Before a couple days ago in Shinji's mind was all a hazy jumble of blurry figures and a soft German symphony. But ignoring the fuzzy bits that were in his mind the ex-pilot concentrated on what he could now remember. The memories weren't really anything special they were full of sitting in a boring classroom sitting on Kaoru's lap. The last realisation made the young insomniac pause and think.

The memories that were flowing through his mind were hard to decipher. For Shinji knew, knew that he had woken the previous day and gone to school he knew that, so why would Kaoru be there? As his blue eyes flickered closed and sleep retook the lithe form on the mattress, Shinji sighed at his last thought before sleep took him over; he had woken from his nightmares, but sadly he was pretty sure that he was now hallucinating.

Morning came all to soon for Tabris, he sat up on the futon and stretched his arms up over his head and then he looked over at the sleeping face of his love, and as he did most mornings he thought of his Lord, the one he left for his love, his love that was still insane. The thought of whether or not Falling from God's graces was worth all the trouble had never crossed the ex-angel's mind. Not even now as he looked down on the boy that he loved, the boy who was trapped in his own trauma filled mind. With a smile the silver-haired boy stood up from the futon on the floor and dressed in his school uniform.

Once Tabris was finished making the vitamin enhanced bento, he also heated up a pot of miso soup that was left over from the previous day, since it had been about a week now since Shinji Ikari had graduated to a more complex diet. Setting the table for two the Fifth Child walked back towards the bedroom to wake up the brunette. The ex-angel was surprised when Pen Pen's refrigerator opened, Tabris paused a moment and watched as the penguin came out of his room dragging a small suitcase. The silver head tipped slightly to the left and red eye's followed the penguin towards the door, "Are you going on vacation?"

Pen Pen paused and turned around to look at the owner of the apartment that he had taken up residence. The penguin gave a slight nod before he turned back to continue walking out of the door.

"Thank you for all your help Pen Pen, I am truly grateful," yelled Tabris as he watched the penguin walk down the hallway as the door slowly came to a close. Turning around the silver-haired boy went back to his original plan for that morning, waking up the boy he loved.

Stepping into the bedroom that the two of them shared Tabris leaned over and gently began to hum Ode an die Freude and shake Shinji's shoulder, "Wake up Shinji-koi we have to get up and go to school." Blue eyes sprung open with a sense of clarity. Those eyes darted worriedly around the room before landing on the silver-haired angel. The Fifth Child's heart leapt up into his throat at the look of utter disbelief and confusion that he found in his love's eyes. The ex-angel allowed a glimmer of hope to fill his heart, "Shinji-koi?"

"Kaoru," replied the brunette as he slowly sat up and scanned the room for his school uniform. The red-eyed boy allowed the hope and happiness to swell more in his heart at the normal gesture that he was viewing, but all of his hope faded away when Shinji finished getting dressed and clung to the slightly taller male. With a sigh Tabris lead the Third Child to the kitchen table and sat them down in a single chair.

The ex-replacement for the pilot of Eva 02 reached for the spoon that lay next to one of the bowls of soup. But surprisingly the spoon was taken directly out from under his nose and the red-eyed boy stared as the young brunette began to eat on his own. After the initial shock wore off Tabris just sat there with a smile on his face, his arms tightened around the thin waist of his to be-boyfriend. When there was a knock on the door the ex-angel came back to his senses and quickly ate his own breakfast.

As the Third, Fourth and Fifth child walked to school with their class Iinchou, Shinji did not outwardly look any different as he clung to the taller boy but a pair of red eyes noticed that the brunette was paying more attention to his surroundings and also had a looser grip on the ex-angel's arm. The closer the group got to their school the tighter Shinji's hold on Tabris became. By the time that they reached the classroom Ikari turned into a detached but nervous wreck.

As roll call was being called Hikari skipped over the two boys sharing a seat in the back of the room like she normally did since Tabris had showed up a few months prior. After roll call, since there were no new announcements the teacher began to present his lecture.

A confused Shinji turned to look at Tabris, and he whispered, "Why was my name not called, I'm here."

The silver-haired boy looked startled down at the brunette in his lap, as he slowly raised his hand. It took a while for the teacher to actually notice that there was a hand raised, but when he did he was surprised that the hand was raised at all, "Hai, Angelo-san."

"The Iinchou never called our names," replied Tabris, the teacher gave the silver-haired NERV employee an exasperated look.

The teacher was ready to ignore the usually silent Eva pilots, but was interrupted by Horaki Hikari, "Ara gomennasi, Angelo Tabris."

"Hai," replied the smug ex-angel.

"Ikari Shinji."

"Hai" whispered the brunette a confused look still on his face. The teacher began to grumble about his students before he returned to his lecture. The teacher didn't get very far before Shinji asked another question and even while the teacher was speaking in his slow sleepy voice, the Third Child's voice seemed to carry, "Why do they call you Angelo Tabris, when your name is Nagisa Kaoru? Are you not Kaoru?"

The room fell silent. Tabris took a deep shaky breath and the arms he had around his love's waist tightened, "Iie, Shinji-koi I am Kaoru. I am from America and so my birth name is Angelo Tabris. When I first came to Japan to pilot Eva Unit 02 Nerv assigned me the name Nagisa Kaoru so that it would not look so odd," red eyes looked down at the brunette in his lap, the boy looked to be near tears, "ara, Shinji-koi, I will always be Kaoru to you. You may address me however you want."

By this point Shinji was a crying mass in the ex-angel's lap. The brunette buried his face into the pale neck and quietly cried for the reminder of the day. He even ate lunch with tears streaming down his cheeks. The new information that Ikari was being exposed to at that moment was too much for him to handle and he broke down. Sometime after lunch Shinji fell asleep in his friends lap and the tired angel had to carry his love home. Both boys went to bed early without dinner.

Blue eyes fluttered open and took in the blue-grey hazy atmosphere that shrouded the room. It took the brunette a minute to divorce the original thoughts from the memories of the previous night. But he knew that there was a difference, since this time his eye stung a bit, and his eyelids were still heavy from crying.

Once he realized that he fell asleep crying, that morning's events came rushing back to him. How the Iinchou and the teacher addressed his hallucination—so that means that Kaoru isn't a hallucination, right? Shinji was beyond confused and with a huff threw his arms spread out at his sides. He hit something. Something hard. All previous thoughts and confusion fled and a new curiosity filled him as he touched this thing that was beside him. It was harder then a futon but softer then a mat floor. Hesitantly and slowly blue eyes turn to see what it is that he had found. To Shinji's utter surprise directly to his left lay a sleeping Kaoru.

There was a pause, where blue eyes took in the sight before him. The silver messy hair, the pale skin of Tabris' chest since the sheets had slipped down to expose the majority of the ex-angel's upper body. The sleeping youth was only in a pair of boxers, which when Shinji realised this he blushed, thinking it was an odd dream. Shinji froze—but it wasn't a dream, was it?

Sitting up slowly and keeping his eyes trained intently on the sleeping figure beside him, Ikari reached over and ran his hand threw the silver hair—it felt real. The hand trailed down to hover over the pale lips and nose, he felt the soft breaths—which pointed to the fact that the person was alive. Blue eyes flickered to the slowly rising chest and with a deep breathe Shinji placed his hand on top of Tabris' chest and took a deep breath as he slide the hand over to where their should be a heart—it beat.

Tears formed in the blue eyes and a choked sob came out, "Kaoru." The brunette threw himself over the prone body and began to sob into the pale neck, a move that his brain registered as vaguely familiar.

The sudden weight thrown on top of the sleeping boy woke him in a startled instance. It took Tabris only a second to register that it was his love that had woken him, his love that was crying over him. Slowly lifting his arms he encased the crying brunette in a warm embrace and whispered into the closest ear, "Shinji-koi why are you crying?"

The slighter male pulled back and stared down into those red eyes he had been dreaming about, "You're here."

Tabris tightened his arms around the brunette that was half on top of him, "Of course I am here, where else would I be."

"But I killed you, I did," Shinji whispered a new round of tears trickling down his cheeks.

The Fifth Child shushed the boy above him and leaned up and kissed both of Shinji's cheeks directly below his eyes, "But I love you Shinji-koi, so I can't die."

"But 01… and… you- your… head-" Shinji wailed.

The silver-haired boy pulled the brunette close to his body and cradled his Love's head as he rocked them back and forth, "You remember Shinji-koi, at the end of it all with Asuka," the ex-angel received a barely perceptible nod, " You called my name, remember," another nod, more confident then the last, "That is love Shinji-koi, if you call me I will come no matter where I am, it might take me a long time to get back to you, but I always will come for you."

"Really?" it was whispered, unsure and very insecure.

"Of course, and if I can no longer come to you, God will bring you to me," Tabris reassured, red eyes looked up towards the ceiling and under his breath he added, "I hope that you will Father."

Shinji sniffed and wiped his teary face into the pale shoulder, "What did you say?"

"We should go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up, but remember the apartment is larger then this room," replied the ex-pilot as he stroked the brunette hair and hummed his love to sleep.

_Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?  
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?  
Such'ihn über'm Sternenzelt!  
Über Sternen muss er wohnen._

When the morning came, red eyes fluttered open and a smile immediately graced his pale features. Careful to extract himself from under the brunette, Tabris got up stretched and got dressed. Looking out of the window he took in the sight of a beautiful Sunday morning. Part of its beauty was that there was no school on Sunday.

It was late in the morning, but the ex-pilot didn't care as he gently woke the sleeping boy on the futon below. Tabris Angelo knew that they would need to go out and buy groceries, especially since Pen Pen was on vacation.

Blue eyes fluttered open; they gazed upward for a brief unseeing moment. Shinji's eyes went wide and his heart skipped a beat before he smiled a slow brilliant smile. "Ohayou Kaoru."

Tabris' face lit up and the smile reached his ears, "Ohayou Shinji-koi"

Shinji sat up on the futon and looked around the room as if it was the first time that he was there. The third child noted that the western style bed was missing and there in one corner was his cello next to a violin. The blue eyes moved and focused on the other person in the room. The brunette racked his brain for the last time that he had seen his friend dressed casually. He couldn't remember a time; cocking his head to one side Shinji began to study the boy in front of him.

"It is Sunday, if that is what you were wondering. We don't have school. I thought we could go grocery shopping, is there anything that you would like to do today?" asked Tabris after a moment.

The pilot of Eva 01 thought for a moment and then shook his head, "Maybe a bath later," Shinji seemed so innocent when he said that sentence and the way he had his head turned was very cute, that Tabris couldn't help but laugh. The young brunette was torn between the elation that he felt at hearing his friend's laughter again and the sadness at being laughed at. His lip began to quiver.

Tabris quieted instantly as soon as he saw the face of his love, "Ara, iie Shinji-koi I am not laughing at you I am just so happy that you are thinking of something as small as a bath. I did not mean to make you sad, will you forgive me?" The ex-angel leaned over and hugged the brunette tight to his chest until he felt the small nod, "Why don't you get dressed for the day and I will go and make us breakfast."

"O-ke," said Shinji Ikari in a very small voice as he slowly and reluctantly let go of his friend, his life line. Tabris got up from the futon and moved into the main room and headed straight for the refrigerator.

Quickly taking stalk of what was in the refrigerator and what he could make for breakfast and what they needed to buy. Tabris quickly decided that the quickest thing to eat for breakfast would have to be leftover bento. Neither of the boys had been able to eat their lunch since Shinji was so upset.

Taking out the two mostly full bento boxes and setting them on his table. Going to the counter he pulled out two pair of hashi out of the drawer before setting them on the table. Looking at the table for a moment the ex-angel decided to set the bento on the same side of the table, but made sure there was two chairs just in case Shinji wanted to sit by himself, but if not the brunette wouldn't feel pressured.

Hearing a shuffling noise in the direction of the bedroom red eyes looked up and met blue, with a smile Tabris said, "I hope you don't mind that breakfast is yesterday's bento, we really didn't have a chance to eat it yesterday."

The third child approached the table and took a seat in the chair closest to the bedroom, "Why didn't we-" Shinji paused as he mulled the words and the memories it brought over in his mind, "your name isn't Nagisa Kaoru?"

There was a pregnant pause as blue and red eyes met, "I told you yesterday that I am American, my name is Tabris Angelo and NERV gave the fake name of Nagisa Kaoru so I would not stick out. You can call me Kaoru if you want."

The brunette slowly nodded as he looked down at his lap excepting the story. Reaching for his hashi he put them between his hands and quietly said, "Itadakimasu." Shinji quietly began to pick at and eat the left over bento. Picking up a hotdog octopus he held it before his face and smiled before taking a bit from one of the "tentacles".

Red eyes watched the boy for a moment, before taking his own seat, following suit he whispered, "Itadakimasu," and began to eat his meal. The two ate in silence and when both boys were finished eating Tabris took their dishes to the sink and began to wash them.

Shinji just sat at the table and watched the silver-haired boy clean up for a moment before asking, "So we're going grocery shopping?"

"Hai, I thought would could go once I finish with the dishes," replied the ex-angel, "Is there anything in particular that you want to eat for the next week?"

The brunette just shrugged, seeing that Tabris was soon to being done with the dishes he moved to stand near the door. It wasn't long until the silver-haired ex-angel met the young brunette at the door with a few canvas bags in hand.

The two boys made their way out of the apartment as they walked down the hall the two were separated. In the elevator to the ground floor Shinji linked his arm with the free arm of the taller teen. When they stepped out onto the street the brunet was glued to the silver-haired boy's side. The farther away from the apartment and the solitude the more attached Ikari became.

The ex-angel asked, "Are you all right Shinji-koi?"

The small brunet mumbled quietly under his breath if the other boy had not been listening then he might have missed it. Halting the steps of the two boys, the fifth child asked for the words of his love to be repeated. "Why are there so many people? I thought they died," was the quiet almost non-perceptive reply.

Red eyes starred at the smaller boy for a second before pale arms wrapped around the slighter figure. Shinji was so confused, thin lips spoke soft words in the nearby ear, "Adam had two wives the first was Lilith and she did not yield to her husband so she was cast out of the garden, more for conflicting personalities. You cannot have two people who each refused to yield to the thoughts of the other. So God created Eve from Adam to ensure that she would yield to him and they could come together without strife. And thus two kinds of people were born the Children of Eve, and the Lilin—the demon children of Lilith and Asmodai. The Father was angered by the remainder of the Children of Eve for they were falling from his graces. Deciding to start over he sent the Angels to kill all of the Children of Eve and the Lilin. But the Lilin followed none of God's orders, and forged their own way. So all of these people are Lilin, there are only four Children of Eve left in the world."

Tabris leaned back far enough to look into the blue eyes. Red eyes followed the slow comprehension form in the mind of his love. Shinji's mouth opened a bit the breath caught in his throat and the words died. His elder companion did not press the issue and just slowly let the brunet from his embrace. Turning and offering his arm to the third child Tabris continued to walk to the market.

It was not long until the silver-haired angel was regretting if only slightly the choice to bring his love shopping. As the streets became narrower and the people more packed Ikari, Shinji became more frantic and nervous. From any other perspective in those moments of the street markets it would appear that the small brunet had not gotten better he seemed his usual silent self.

In the beginning the ex-replacement for the pilot of Eva 02, tried to engage the third child in any type of interaction whether it was the type of tofu he preferred or simply a telling of his favourite meal; to no avail. Besides to quiet fear of the brunet the shopping was done in relative peace.

The Fifth Child was busy picking out vegetables, he was only slightly worried about the death grip on his arm, but as long as he knew where his love was then he was fine. Suddenly the arm of the brunet was ripped from its grasp on the ex-angel. Tabris spun quickly around and to his horror Shinji was sprawled on the ground with tears in his eyes. A short distance away stood Asuka her fiery hair standing out amongst the crowd of Japanese.

There was a sneer fixed on the second child's face, "What are you doing here? I thought you kept him confined to his room and school so that he will stay in your world, _Engel_." (Angel).

"My world, is your and his world now Daughter of Eve. This does not however, give you the right to hurt him more," replied Tabris as he helped the third child off of the ground and wrapped the brunet in a comforting embrace.

"He should be with me," came a whispered hiss.

"He should be happy. It is time that you forget this Child of Eve, oh, Daughter and embrace the Lilin instead," was the quiet reply as Tabris turned Shinji to return home. The rest of their shopping could wait, all the while humming.

_Freude, Schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!_

Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Author's Note: I apologise for your long wait. So what do you think? Please review.

-Na


	8. Shichi

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html (Which no longer is up... luckily I saved the words in a word document).

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Gomenasai Onegai, 对不起, Es tut mir leid, Sorry, please all my wonderful readers forgive me. This time I am seriously going to update. For real unlike the last chapter... This is the next fic to be finished.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-shichi

It was one of those days—one of those great and shining days. The sun was shining (like most days), the grass was green (like every day), and Shinji was smiling. The smiling was not so much a new occurrence just a more frequenting occurrence. It had been a few months, a few months since Shinji's first shopping trip. And in those few months there had been great leaps and bounds in the Lilin's efforts to rebuild the world.

The smile gracing Shinji's face was because Tabris had told him that they would be going to the movies later that day after school. After the dust had settled all those years prior a group of film students with no other marketable skill had brought it upon themselves to start producing films—and in wake of the devastation those films were mostly comedy. Finally one of these films had made its way to Toukyou.

Shinji was happy to be going to the movies, he really couldn't remember ever going to the movies, and on top of that it was going to be new and exciting, especially since Asuka wasn't going. The small brunet, in Tabris' eyes was making great progress—with him, at least. The two flatmates would often have long conversations; if partially because Shinji had trouble forming his thoughts into actual word. In public the Third Child was withdrawn; he still clung to Tabris, but he was doing better he responded to most direct questions and verbal stimulation by others. Although the majority of his responses were so quiet that only the silver-haired boy could hear them.

The school day seemed to drag on and on that day as Shinji sat comfortably in his angel's lap; a small part of the brunet not trusting that his Kaoru would not be taken from him once more. Blue eyes looked around the classroom taking in the faces of his classmates vaguely he could only recognise a handful and recall the names of fewer. It didn't even occur to the ex-Eva pilot that this was a shameful state of mind. His head was filled with thoughts of the special occurrence with Kaoru and his two friends that would happen that evening.

Blue eyes finally landed on a glaring redhead, those innocent eyes went wide the upturned lips slipped down and the brunet quickly turned his head and buried it into the crook of the Fifth Child's neck. The pale arms tightened around the slighter form as Tabris began to hum.

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein!  
_

Red eyes shifted to glare at the Second Child, even the mentioning of her name would send Shinji in a panic. NERV had some awkward notion that Shinji would heal and fall neatly into the arms of Asuka. Tabris knew this because he filed a request first to have Asuka transferred and then when that failed he put in the request to have Shinji and he transferred. Request denied. The ex-angel even toyed with the idea of leaving without permission, but NERV was everywhere and since they were not really minors but still working for the organisation, NERV would know the moment that either of them used their Zürich International Bank cards. So Tabris resigned himself to doing the best that he could.

Lunch was finally upon them; the group made their way to their usual tree and sat down. It was now a common sight to see Shinji perched in Tabris' lap while the silver-haired boy fed his young love. What most of the onlookers didn't know was that when they were alone Shinji ate his own food. And when Asuka could not be seen then the brunet's appetite increased. But if anyone cared to look at the redhead they would have to agree that the constant glare from her would put anyone off of their appetites.

The lunch period contained a half smiling Third Child and an excited Fourth Child and his girlfriend. The chatter was mostly centred on the film they were going to see that night. The ex-angel vaguely took note that Asuka knew of their planned trip to the theatre and he was sure that she even had been invited. But the German refused to go saying that she had other plans.

Tabris tried to take his mind off the worries he had concerning the redhead as they made their way back into the school building. The red-eyed youth tried to pay attention to the teacher as the old man lectured, since he knew that there would be an exam at the end of the year if not sooner.

Eventually the school day was finished and spirits rose. A majority of the students at the school were going to go and see the film that night. They weren't all going together or even to the same showing, but they were going.

Before Tabris could lead Shinji, as well as Touji and Hikari out of the building, a small brunet boy barrelled into Shinji and hugged him around the waist, "Shinji-onii-san, I have a date tonight!"

Blue and red eyes looked down to see Kagura smiling up at them gripped tightly in his hands were two movie tickets, a huge smile on his face. Tabris glanced at his love for a reaction Shinji was smiling back, turning his attention to the young boy impeding their movements he said, "That's great, who is your date with?"

Kagura looked affronted, "I told Shinji-onii-san all about him." The silver-haired youth looked confused, he knew that it was not true, or even if it was that Shinji would know without Tabris knowing.

"Yuya-kun," Shinji murmured to the boy behind Tabris who looked nervous, the elder brunet was unsure where the words came from, "Kagura-kun," since when did he know these children? "Have fun tonight."

The ex-pilot replacement turned around to see another small brunet, who had the faint stain of a blush on his cheeks and a wide grin. It was really obvious now that the Yuya was Kagura's date. After a few more hugs and well wishes the elder kids left the younger to go to the movie theatre.

The walk to the theatre seemed short and filled with smiles. At the theatre the group noticed that there were a couple of their other classmates there to watch the new movie. In the showing room most of the seats were empty, mostly because the film started a bit before the usual quitting time for the majority of the working adults. That and not many people had the time or the money for such frivolous things as going to the movies.

The film was indeed comedic; it seemed to do a good job at removing everyone from thought of the more recent near-world destruction. It was also a film appropriate for all kinds of audiences. When leaving the theatre, the friends agreed that they couldn't wait for the next film by the same producers, since part of its charm was that the film had no real budget and things like the local dinner that the main characters met at often was still missing part of one of the walls from the Third Impact. Shinji even smiled and quietly agreed that the film was good. That admission made Tabris almost giddy that he didn't want the day to end.

In an attempt to extend their outing the ex-angel suggested that they go and eat out, Touji and Hikari agreed although the girl made a comment about it being more like a double date with dinner. The comment confused Shinji and made Tabris blush slightly. They went to a little Ramen shop and ate their evening meal.

Eventually the evening had to end and the two couples separated so that they could go to their own homes for the evening. There was no commotion in the Nagisa residence, for when Tabris and Shinji got home they quickly got ready for bed.

The next day on the way to school, the Iinchou and her boyfriend talked about the previous night, but Tabris was not as excited, Shinji's grip on his arm was even tighter than usual and he had a horrible feeling of dread.

Heart hammering in his chest, entering the school gates Tabris and Shinji froze and for a moment forgot to breath. There at the bottom of the steps into the school was three people dressed in suits and a smirking Asuka—NERV.

After a pregnant pause Tabris took a deep breath and steeled his resolve before leading the smaller brunet towards the waiting group. When they were close enough one of the impeccably dressed men stepped forward, "Angelo Tabris, Ikari Shinji, we require a word, follow us."

The three men and Asuka turned and went into the school, expecting the ex-pilots to follow them. Anger and worry rose in the ex-angel. At that moment he hated NERV more than ever. They were lead into the disused music room; the art sadly no longer on the curriculum. They all sat down in pre arranged chairs so that Tabris and Shinji were in the spot light.

The ex-angel looked at the two chairs for him and Shinji and groaned. He spent a few moments in quiet murmurs trying to convince his love to not sit in his lap. Begrudgingly the brunet finally agreed and sat in the chair next to the silver-haired youth. The ex-pilot of Eva unit 01 stayed in his spot or less than a minute of the heavy look from the NERV representatives.

Once Shinji had stopped squirming in his lap, red eyes scanned the room, Kaji Yayoi was not there. NERV just sent nameless, faceless, suits. Yes, they were all suits; detached from all vital information and good or making the remaining vital yet free information disappear.

"Angelo Tabris former alias Nagisa Kaoru from the US branch you are under suspicion," replied the man on sitting in the far right chair.

Tabris swallowed hard, "Suspicion of what?"

The suit in the mild reached into an inside jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, unfolding it he read out loud, "Nagisa Kaoru you are charged with: Misleading and wilfully going against NERV—"

"Under Seele's orders," replied Tabris.

"Do not speak until we are finished," growled the man on the right.

The man holding the paper continued, "Unauthorised contact with Eva unit 01 pilot the Third Child Ikari Shinji, Unauthorised use of Eva unit 02, revealing your true identity to NERV, and failing to complete the task sent to you by Seele. These are the accusations that were brought upon Nagisa Kaoru prior to his death. Due to the nature of clones and angels these crimes have been transferred to Angelo Tabris. In addition Angelo Tabris is also under suspicion for: Using NERV for personal gain, Separating Seele's new Adam from the new Eve, and impeding the healing of Eva unit 01 pilot the Third Child Ikari Shinji. How do you plead?"

Tabris took a couple deep breaths to calm his rage and then fixed the suits with a hard stare over Shinji's head, "How do I plead? You are telling me your suspicions... my future charges, I'm not in court. As Nagisa Kaoru I was never yours you let a half animated clone waiting for me waiting for the Father to send me, luckily my plans from him were similar to the plans wrought by Seele. If I had released Lilith from terminal dogma then my charges would be against NERV!" Tabris took a couple more deep breaths and stroked Shinji's hair to calm the now quivering brunet, "If all your pawns were able to come back from the dead would they all be under suspicion for not completing orders? I died before I could finish my task, so you have no right to bring that against me. You cannot blame me or separating these two," Tabris gestured between the still smug Asuka and the boy in his lap, "I wasn't even alive then."

The man on the left finally spoke pulling out some papers from the inside of his jacket pocket, "I have a request from Angelo Tabris that Souryuu Asuka be transfer away from ground zero Toukyou. Request denied. I have a second request, from Angelo Tabris requesting for the transfer of Angelo Tabris and Ikari Shinji to Las Vegas Nevada. Request denied."

"Souryuu Asuka, is the one that is impeding Shinji's healing," replied Tabris glaring at Asuka.

The redhead exploded, "He is the one that keeps Shinji in his lap and feeds him at lunch and doesn't let Shinji speak to me."

"He didn't speak before I came, or eat, or anything," argued Tabris.

The man on the left picked up the assault against Tabris, "This mothering is only helping so much, not allowing him contact with old friends is only hurting Ikari Shinji. Ikari Shinji will be moved to a NERV facility to continue healing."

"No," the words were loud and clear filling the room, everyone was shocked that it was Shinji that spoke, "I'm not leaving Kaoru. Asuka hurt me and she is mean and yells a lot, I don't want to talk to her and you can't make me. I'm staying right here." During his speech blue eyes lifted from their spot in the crook of Tabris' neck and glared at the suits. The words came slowly and calculated each syllable caused tears to fall from the bright blue eyes.

The room was silent for a moment, Asuka grew red with anger and the suits glanced at each other, "We are pre pared to give you six more months." The suits got up and left, with one last angry look Asuka stomped out of the room.

Tabris just sat in the music room chair rocking Shinji back and forth whispering praises for standing up to NERV. Red eyes scanned the room and an idea began to form in him mind. A huge smile spread across his face as he took in the music stands and scattered sheets of music. One such sheet caught his eye and Tabris began to sing from it.

_Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele  
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!  
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle  
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!_

Freude trinken alle Wesen  
An den Brüsten der Natur;  
Alle Guten, alle Bösen  
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.

Author's Note: I apologise for your long wait. So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	9. Hachi

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html (Which no longer is up... luckily I saved the words in a word document).

So I know I said I would see you guys in a week, but I ended up in the hospital and you might not get your next chapter on Monday. But here is the promised chapter only slightly late. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Lots of happy things happen.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-hachi

It was a Sunday again, a couple weeks after the Seele incident. Tabris was relatively happy about how quickly Shinji had recovered. They had spent a few hours in the music room Tabris reassuring the brunet that no one would separate them. When the tears had abated Tabris had regaled Shinji with tales of a grand spring concert and how they would put that string quartet together and have other songs played and groups formed from the rest of their classmates. Shinji Ikari got equally excited about this plan. Even though the two did not go to classes that day, they also had not mentioned their plan yet they wanted to be fully prepared to present the idea to the class. And tomorrow was a day for a class meeting, so tomorrow was the day.

Currently Tabris was at the stove preparing the midday and evening meals or the day; he was also going to throw together a couple quick meals that could be reheated later in the week. Shinji was sitting at the table content to just watch as the silver-haired angel worked.

Suddenly the brunet broke the still, "What are you making?"

"Just some meals for the week and today," replied Tabris.

"It smells like curry," said Shinji wrinkling his nose.

"You like curry, don't you" asked the taller youth turning to look at his love.

"Aa, but you have hotdogs, I don't want hotdogs in my curry," replied the brunet after a pregnant moment.

The Fifth Child chuckled, "The hotdogs are for tomorrow's bento, I'm making octopuses."

Shinji just nodded as he watched Tabris take the hotdogs from the package and put them on the cutting board. The Third Child shift a couple times in his seat and bit his lip finally murmured something that the silver-haired youth didn't catch, "What did you say Shinji-koi?"

"Could you show me how to make octopuses?" the blue-eyed boy whispered.

Tabris broke out into a huge grin and motioned the other boy towards him; "Of course, come over here," the ex-pilot of unit 01 slowly got up from his seat and went over to stand next to the taller youth. Shinji shifted nervously and watched Tabris closely, "So, first you need to cut them in half," Tabris held out the knife to Shinji with a big encouraging smile. The brunet took the sharp implement with an uncertain hand.

As the morning progressed Shinji became a bit more confident in cooking. Tabris taught him simple things like the octopus hotdogs, rice and omelette. The fallen angel praised the slighter male at every turn even when his rice was too dry for onegri and his omelette fell apart. With Shinji preparing their lunches for the next day that left Tabris with more time to pay attention to the curry and other meals for the week.

Shinji proudly showed Tabris his prepared bento boxes before they sat down to the midday meal. Red eyes shined as he took in the two large bento boxes that were an assembled mess, but made with care and the half dozen small bento sampling boxes, "These look wonderful Shinji-koi, who are the little ones for?"

Shinji blushed looking at the boxes it was just rice, hotdog, omelette and a bit of pickled vegetables, "I... ano... I thought the Iinchou and Touji... and... ano..."

"That is a wonderful idea, help me wrap these and then we'll eat lunch," said Tabris with a huge grin. Carefully the two young men wrapped up the bento boxes and stacked them neatly in the refrigerator. They sat down to their meal sharing a chair and eating in compatible silence. When most of the plates were clear Shinji murmured.

"What was that Shinji-koi? I didn't hear you, asked Tabris wrapping his arms around the other male and cuddling him a bit more closely.

"Kaoru, don't we have homework? We go to class so why don't we have any homework?"

Tabris was stunned for a moment, and then squeezed Shinji a bit more before replying, "You are right Shinji-koi we have some math to go over."

The brunet just nodded and finished the food on his plate. While Tabris cleaned the dishes from their meal and Shinji's cook excursion, the Third Child went into their room and brought out both of their bags.

Homework lay out on the table both boys hunched over math books, Tabris had little trouble with the work but Shinji was behind by a lot so the ex-angel had to explain some of the more rudimentary math figures so that his little love would understand. They took a break to eat dinner and finished their homework right before it was time to go to bed.

The next morning Shinji was overly excited but refused to tell either Hikari or Touji why. Tabris had packed their bags so that Shinji carried all of the bento boxes and he had their school books. The closer to the school the more subdued the little brunet became, but nothing could destroy the happy smile on his face.

Since the day began with a class meeting, the meeting would occur directly after roll was called and when the teacher returned from the late start homework would be completed. Horaki Hikari stood in front of the class with a huge smile on her face, "I don't have much in the way of announcements but Angelo Tabris-kun, and Ikari Shinji-kun has something they would like to bring to the class' attention."

Even with the smile still on his face and the excitement coursing through his veins Shinji hesitated as he made his way to the front of the class, Tabris followed close behind him with a stack of papers, their proposal.

Tabris organised his papers and reached out with one hand to hold Shinji, "Recently we were in the music room, both playing an instrument ourselves. We noticed that the room is still mostly intact. There are still music stands and sheet music; there are even a few instruments. We thought it would be nice if we could put on a spring concert.

The chatter in the room rose, Tabris quieted them down as he continued to speak, "We looked into it, usually concerts are held by classes and clubs, since we no longer have a music teacher and there is no one in the community that we could find who would like the job or was qualified, we are unable to have a music class again. That was when Shinji and I looked into making a music club. We requested the records to the previous music club and drew up a similar charter to the one that had been used at this school. Our sensei signed the forms for the club as did the administrator so there is now a music club.

The silver-haired youth held up a copy of the charter, "We are looking for anyone else who would like to join the club our mission statement currently stands as: Music Club, a group created with the purpose of teaching music to those who have previously no experience, providing a creative outlet for those who already engaged with an instrument and to musically enrich the lives around us. Shinji plays the cello and I play the violin we are both willing to help tutor anyone wanting to learn either instrument. We also hope that others that already play an instrument will help teach those who, as of yet do not know how to play. Arigatou."

The two boys returned to their seats and an exciting chatter filled the room. Since the third impact there were not enough teachers or students to do many of the activities that had been done prior. Most sports required teams that were larger than the amount of students available. Even if the whole class created a team they would not have someone to play against, and some of the elder kids were afraid of the younger ones getting hurt. A music club was perfect.

When the class meeting time came to an end the Iinchou settled everyone down and began collecting homework, when the teacher entered the room. Hikari was overly shocked when both Tabris and Shinji turned in their work. Perhaps a little too loudly she praised Shinji for a job well done.

Asuka sneered at the two sharing a seat, "So what he did his homework, not like we haven't been doing our homework for the last few years."

"But Shinji has been sick," replied Hikari with a glare.

"Sick? Sick! He hasn't been sick; he's insane I bet he didn't even do his own homework I bet the Engel got so sick of him he had to do homework for them both to get away. I bet—" (Angel)

"Calm down Souryuu, or you will be holding buckets in the hallway," said the teacher as he dropped a book on top of his desk. He glared around the room quieting the odd arrange of students, "Now, we have a new student joining us today, Angelo Lilim."

A small silver-haired red-eyed girl walked into the classroom. There was a mirage of reactions; Most of the class whispered of Angelo twins, Tabris glared in amusement, Shinji smiled and whispered "Rei." At the same time Asuka's shocked screech of, "Rei!"

The teacher didn't let Lilim introduce herself, instead he shooed her to her seat. She took a seat between Asuka and the Third and Fifth children in the back of the room.

Tabris looked over and smiled, "I see you took my name."

"We're both clones of..." Lilim tilted her head and made a gesture at Shinji.

The red-eyed male nodded once, "What took you so long?"

"I'm rather attached to this form, and my last body was stuck under a lot of rubble," replied the First Child.

The teacher cleared his throat loudly, making the 'siblings' quiet down and pay half an ear to him. As the morning progressed Shinji got more and more restless practically bouncing in Tabris' lap.

Finally lunch was upon them and Shinji got up and opened his bag excitedly. Hikari and Touji went over to greet Lilim and everyone milled a room longer than usual hoping to find out the familial connection between Tabris and Lilim.

Shinji took out two of the small bento boxes and walked over to Kagura and Yuya. He held one out to each of them, "Kaoru taught me how to make them, and I made them myself. I hope you like them."

Two pairs of bright hazel eyes stared up at the elder brunet and the young coupled chorused, "Arigatou Shinji-onii-san." Shinji smiled and moved back towards his group of friends. He took out the remain four small bento boxes and approached Touji, Hikari, and Lilim he handed each of them a box, "I made them myself..." there was a long pause where Hikari and Touji realised that it was a Thank you of sorts from when they made him lunch and made sure he got dressed and to school.

Taking a firm grip on Tabris' are Shinji pulled him closer to Asuka and held out the bento box, "I... ano... I haven't forgiven you... ano.... well..."

A shocked Second Child took the bento with a shocked look on her face. Shinji turned and quickly moved back to his desk, dragging Tabris with him, he pulled out the two larger bento boxes and smiled.

The ex-angel chuckled, "You made six boxes for friends; did you know Rei would come back?"

The brunet shrugged and tightened his grip on Tabris arm. They headed for the door so that they could eat their lunches at their usual tree. Under his breath Shinji began to sing only loud enough for Tabris to hear, the ex-angel grinned ear-to-ear.

_Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,  
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;  
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,  
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott._

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen  
Durch des Himmels Prächt'gen Plan,  
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,  
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.

Author's Note: Rei is back!! So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	10. Ku

Disclaimer: I dont own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didnt know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin and cuddlin) and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Authors Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:// www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

I know this took longer than expected, I had writers block. According to my story outline there was suppose to be a movie night with Touji, but as I began to write this chapter happened. I was never planning on half of the stuff in this chapter to occur in the fic, but I really like the out come I hope you do too.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-ku

The Music club was working out, there had been a few other surviving musicians in the group a good portion of the younger students had already had precorder lessons as was standard in education. The Iinchou played the clarinet before and she was teaching a bunch of the younger children that didnt want to continue with the precorders but also were not very good with completely different types of instruments. Touji played the trumpet but ended up teaching brass instrument basics to the interested parties.

Shinji was beginning to feel useless in the whole endeavour. There had only been one student that wanted to learn cello, Kagura. And in the end he was too small to hold such a large instrument. Tabris automatically swept up the little boy and taught him how to play violin.

Asuka had refused to come to the music club even if she was the only one in the class that did not want to participate in any form. But one afternoon the redhead was dragged to the music room by Lilim the small red-eyed girl held a violin and a viola in her grasp.

Three of the students in the class had decided that they were not musically inclined and decided that they would help with the set up of the spring concert. The first order of business had been to start cleaning a restoring the auditorium so that they would have a place to hold the concert. This particular group of student were also making plan to paint background scenery and correlate costumes for the concert.

Even though Shinji was not contributing to the music tutoring he was still excited by the prospect. And the work that they had put into the project the past couple weeks have been very good for the brunet. After that first day when Lilim came the class teacher was expecting that both Tabris and Shinji complete both class work and homework. The normalcy of the chore helped to ground Shinji.

Blue-eyes glanced over at the desk next to him, a smile lit up the brunets face as he gazed at the ex-angel who sat next to him, who was gently holding onto the third childs hand. Shinji took note that next to Tabris sat Lilim (or Rei as Shinji still thought) and next to her was Asuka. Blue-eyes swept closer to the front of the room where Touji and Hikari sat. On the opposite side of the room were Kagura and his boyfriend Yuya.

While the teacher droned on and on about whatever and the only one who was taking notes was the Iinchou. The whole scene was very familiar to the ex-Eva pilot of Unit 01 if you replaced the young children with people that had been in Shinjis class before.

Suddenly it felt as if Shinjis heart stopped, breath caught and blood pounding in his ears, Shinjis eyes scanned the room taking in the back of every head and the profile of person in the room. His eyes swept the room once, twice and a third time Aida Kensuke was nowhere to be found. Blue eyes landed on Lilim, 01 Ayanami Rei, his eyes moved to the redhead beside her, 02 Souryuu Asuka Rangureu himself, 03 Ikari Shinji eyes flickered to the front of the room, 04 Suzuhara Touji turning to look at the person in the seat directly next to him, 05 Nagisa Kaoru.

The brunet kept his focus on Tabris for a few moments taking in the features of the ex-angel. Shinji wracked his brain trying to remember anything useful. He had seenhe had killed Kaoru. But this wasnt Kaoru this was Angelo Tabris; like how that was not Rei but Angelo Lilim. Rei he remembered how she had gone into situations where her life became forfeit, but she always came back. Glancing at the two silver haired youths he vaguely remembered that they were one in the samethey were kin.

Glancing around the room the only non-Eva pilot that Shinji remembered was the Iinchou- Horaki Hikari. Shinjis heart seized and the brunet violently got to his feet. The room was suddenly silent, but Shinjis head was pounding and suddenly so were his feet carrying him out the door and to the nearest restroom.

The room was dark the silence now comforting. Shinji remembered Kensuke, remembered how he had wanted so badly to be an Eva pilot. His anger at how Touji got chosen over him. He remembered the adults and their conversations ones they thought he wouldnt understand and wasnt around to hear.

The third child was angry he knew that everyone in his class could have been chosen to be a pilot and he knew that was Kensuke wanted that seat more than he ever did, and he didnt know but he could see that the only people left alive that he knew from before were Eva pilots and for some reason the Iinchou.

Hot tears streaked down the brunets angry red face, taking a couple of quick steps to the sinks along the wall he turned on the faucet and splashed his face. Looking up in the mirror, Ikari Shinji froze anger bleeding away as he jumped back in shock. The person looking back at him wasnt himself.

Walking closer to the mirror Shinji put his hand to the glass to be sure that he was looking at his own reflection. Satisfied that there was no one playing a joke on him Shinji studied his own features while he thought about the last time he looked in a mirror. He looked older more like the pictures he had seen in his youth of his mother he had her soft features when he narrowed his eyes in his study of himself he reeled back recognising the expression as one that his father often had on his face.

There was suddenly a noise at the door and Tabris stepped into the bathroom. With one last look at the mirror the brunet launched himself into the arms of the ex-angel. Kaoru, how old am I? asked Shinji the question just slipped out it suddenly seemed more important than anything he could ask about Kensuke.

Shinji-koi, Tabris whispered as he petted the brown hair and held the smaller body to him, you are eighteen it is 2020 March 18 you will be nineteen in a few months.

The third child pulled back and looked shocked at his friend before burying his head deeper into the warm embrace of the fifth child. Where did all the time go?

You know the answer Shinji-koi, replied Tabris tightening his arms around the other boy, what made you leave the classroom?

The younger youth hesitated he could hear some shuffling looking over the shoulder of the silver haired youth he could see Lilim, Asuka, Touji, and Hikari in the door of the bathroom. Swallowing and taking a deep breath Shinji admitted, I realised the Kensuke is gone, the only people I knew from before are Eva pilots and the Iinchou.

The room was silent for a pregnant moment Hikari put her hand to her mouth it appeared as if she was about to cry. Touji broke the silence, Our teacher is the same.

Tabris shifted so that both he and Shinji could easily see the rest of their friends. Red-eyes shared a look with equally red eyes and Lilim turned towards the Iinchou and her boyfriend. Could you guys make sure that the teacher doesnt call NERV, and that Kagura is all right?

Hikari nodded and pulled her boyfriend from the room. The remaining four pilots looked at each other before Lilim began to explain, There are three types of people in the world that you remember. There was humans the children of Adam and Eve the pride of God, there was the Lilin children of Lilth and Asmodai a demon, and lastly there are angel fallen or otherwise.

You might not like to think about it, Tabris began to speak, but Lilim and I are clones... what cloning had a hard time completing is a soul. This is how Lilim and I as ex-angels at this Lilim snorted, were able to take this humanoid form.

Now the humans had fallen from Gods path they had sinned one too many times and God decided he wanted to start over again. He sent the Angels, to kill off humanity except for the new Adam and Eve. Everyone who died was 100% human. Everyone who was left alive except for Horaki, Suzuhara, Asuka, and Shinji, are Lilin the children of Lilith.

Asuka looked affronted and with an angry snarl said, What about Kaji Yayoi, she is the sister of Kaji Ryouji.

Half-siblings, shrugged Lilim.

But you said there was four of us when the goal was for there to only be two of us remaining, snapped Asuka her confusion bleeding through in her words.

God maybe all knowing, but he still underestimates the power of the human emotions. The Father believed that Ikari Shinjis feelings for Nagisa Kaoru would dissipate with time Lilim paused and looked at everyone studying the look on their face from her explanation, I however knew better, I saved Suzuhara Touji and Horaki Hikari to be the Fathers new Adam and Eve.

The room was silent for a moment Shinji clung to Tabris and Asuka became red with anger. Im supposed to be with Shinji but you _Engeln_ruined it! (Angels)

Both red-eyed youths opened their mouths to retort but Shinji beat them to it. I dont love you Asuka.

That _Engel_ is male, it is wrong! yelled Asuka. (Angel)

He loves me, that love is real, Shinji whispered harshly tears in his eyes as he stared at the redhead, Kaoru is real... he is real...

The room became silent as Shinji trailed off. Tabris held the slighter form closer to his body and began to hum.

_Freude, schner Gtterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!_

_Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flgel weilt._

Authors Note: I apologise for your long wait. So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	11. Ju

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least SHOUNEN-AI (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

I know this took longer than expected, but as I promised here it is for February. If you have not seen, the schedule or my updates is posted on my lj and there is an explanation in my profile. These last few chapters are all very short. I could have made them one or two long chapters but they are separated by time jumps I hope you like it.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-ju_  
_

The Music room was filled with the din of many instruments, it was the time designated for self practice. So everyone was working on their own personal parts for the up-and-coming concert. The result was a noise filled room in which, picking out an individual tune was next to impossible.

When the students became tired with the practice, all they had to do was move down to the auditorium and lend a hand to the students that were building the set and coordinating the costumes for the Spring Concert.

It was a good set up, since practicing for many hours straight rarely did anyone good. Helping with the set design gave the musicians a needed break while still engaging their minds, learning new things, and getting to know new (or old) friends in new ways. The help was also a much needed thing, since the concert was set for less than a week away. Restoration of the auditorium had taken longer than anyone had thought so a majority of the costumes for the concert were simple white collared tops and black dress bottoms. There were a few exceptions some of the younger kids, with support from elder students, believed that there should be more colour so one particularly apt song had the children dressed as the four seasons of old.

Whether the students were practicing their musical part or helping to put the finishing touches on the set and auditorium the students were hard at work, happy, and in their own world. The peace of the din was broken by a rarely heard sound: a cello strumming to life. A cello shortly joined by a violin. The two instruments had been playing for a while off in their own corner, but just now were the emotions and notes felt, and heard throughout the room, everyone stopped.

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein!_

Someone ran swiftly from the music room and down the hall to the auditorium to alert the students there of the amazing duet. And soon the music room was filled with eager eyes all watching the far corner of the room where Shinji and Tabris were sitting. They were facing each other, eyes closed and simply playing. The room watched as the duet continued in their own world, the notes filled the air; occasionally the German words sung by Tabris could be heard as the two continued to play. They reached the end of the song and without pause started again at the beginning.

The longer they played content in their own world the more red faced it made Asuka. In a burst of rage the red head turned on her heals and stormed out of the room knocking over Kagura and making the little boy cry from the force of it. The music stopped.

The whole room turned to look at Kagura and the door that had been left open. Tabris and Shinji moved quickly over to the young boy to make sure that he was all right and Lilim followed the irate redhead down the hall.

Outside the door to the music room Lilim paused and looked down the hallway in both directions. Asuka was nowhere to be seen. So Lilim paused and listen until she heard a string of German curses and a door slam shut. The ex-angle turned down the hall towards the auditorium and ran. Lilim found Asuka in the small prop closet by the auditorium often used as a changing room among other things during performances.

Asuka was facing away from the door, with the lights off, her hands gripping a stack of folding chairs. Lilim stepped in to the hazy room and placed a gentle hand on the German girl's shoulders. Asuka tensed and then relaxed, when Lilim spoke, "I've told you that they are meant to be together."

"It doesn't mean that I have to like it, I was always told that gay people were freaks, they were evil. Besides I wanted Shinji."

"No, you didn't," replied Lilm.

Asuka turned around red faced and angry, "Of course I did! I know how I fe—"

Lilim interrupted Asuka, "No you didn't. The Evas lacked a soul and were very limited in their uses in the beginning. According to NERV it was a failure. That was until Ikari Yui's sync ratio reached 100% and became one with Eva unit 01 and she became the soul, the life spark of all Evas. Therefore anyone with prolonged intimate contact with the Eva units is also getting prolonged exposure to a mother's love for her son. What you feel Asuka is Ikari Yui's love for Shinji."

The redhead let silence encompass the room, what Lilim had said made sense, in a giant-robots-fighting-angels-and-gods-divine-wishes-to-save-the-human-race-(which-they-sort-of-failed-at) kind of way. If she really, really thought about it, the thought of intimacy with Shinji was about a thousand times less appealing then intimacy with Kaji Ryoji. In the silence they could hear that some of the students had returned to the auditorium.

"But," Asuka thought out loud, "if my love for Shinji was influenced by the love of Ikari Yui then, wouldn't that mean that Lilim, Touji, and Tabris all were influenced the same?"

Lilim answered even though the question hadn't been posed to her, "Well Touji wasn't an Eva pilot long enough to get the full effect, but he is Shinji's friend. I was first exposed to Ikari Yui's love for Ikari Gendo, and on top of the fact that I am genetically Ikari Yui, siphoned from Ikari Shinji, well I love him… like a family member, and always have. As for Tabris—"

"He doesn't really love Shinji! I knew it he has false feelings like the rest of us!" excitedly exclaimed Asuka.

"No," the words came out bitter and sharp there was a note of finality and truth, "Tabris, fell in love with Shinji when he first met him, before he ever stepped foot in an Eva. There was no influence."

Asuka visibly deflated, "I still don't like gay people and I don't like not being included."

A smile lit up Lilim's face; she grabbed Asuka's hand in hers and pulled the redhead from the storage room. The small albino quickly pulled the German back to the music room. When they entered the room, it appeared that Shinji and Tabris had gone back to playing Ode an die Freude. Some of the students were still listening to them, and others had gone back to their own practice.

The red eyed girl dropped Asuka's hand and went on a quick search for their instruments. The redhead looked down at the hand that had just been dropped and wondered at it, for it had felt similar to holding (or how she had imagined holding) Kaji's hand. The Second Child shook off the thought and looked around the room. Tabris and Shinji had stopped playing and Lilim was standing by them holding a violin and a viola.

Suddenly all three of them turned to look at Asuka expectantly, all with soft, happy smiles on their faces. Asuka was very confused and just stood there staring back at them. Lilim sighed and walked back to Asuka she handed the ex-Eva pilot her violin and then grabbed her spare hand and dragged her over to Tabris and Shinji.

"We were discussing," began Lilim, "doing Ode an die Freude as a String Quartet for the concert."

Asuka looked shocked for a moment and then a half-question half-protest exploded from her mouth, "But the concert is only a week away!"

"That is why we picked Ode an die Freude," replied Shinji in a quiet tone with a shy smile.

Tabris nodded and added, "Remember we had to learn it for NERV when they wanted us to do a quartet? It will be perfect, I feel a second violin and a viola will bring out the song in ways that Shinji and I cannot by ourselves and it will also be good for the concert goers. If we do this quartet, just as NERV had promised shortly before the world as everyone knew it ended, it might restore some hope and normalcy in the city."

Everyone paused and looked at Asuka. The redhead didn't know what to say and looked back at the other Eva pilots. Eventually Shinji broke the silence, "I think it will be fun, the four of us playing together."

Lilim smiled, "Me too."

"I agree," added Tabris.

"How about it Asuka?" asked Lilim after Shinji had nudged both her and Tabris trying to get one of them to voice his question for him.

Blue eyes looked into the red eyes of Lilim and then the red eyes of Tabris, slowly blue eyes met blue eyes of the small brunet boy that seemed to start all of this. There was innocence and hope in those eyes. A love that was grand, but not like how Asuka thought she felt for the boy. With a smile the redhead sat in a chair and took out her violin, "Let's do this!"

While the quartet had been talking the room had once more filled with the din of various musicians practicing their parts for the concert, some together others alone. An individual tune was hard to pick out in the room, and yet everyone was at peace with themselves. The peace of the din was broken by a rarely heard sound: a cello strumming to life. A cello shortly joined by a violin, then the second violin, and a viola another rare sound to be heard in that room. The four instruments had just begun playing off in their own corner. The emotions and notes were instantly felt, and heard throughout the room, everyone stopped. And they looked over to watch the String Quartet.

_Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele  
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!  
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle  
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!_

Freude trinken alle Wesen  
An den Brüsten der Natur;  
Alle Guten, alle Bösen  
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.

Author's Note: I apologise for your long wait. But I have finished the fic now. So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	12. Juichi

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least BL (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). There is some GL (girls kissin' and cuddlin'). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

Here is the spring concert and a bit of romance!

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-juichi

The auditorium was restored—restored enough that a large group of people could safely sit inside and not be afraid of falling ceiling or rickety chairs. Not all of the auditorium chairs had been salvageable, but for the concert they were replaced with folding chairs. And every one of those chairs was full. It was a single night concert, which had people in the community coming to see it even if they didn't have any children in the concert.

Backstage the students were running around with nervous excitement. Some were off repeating the musical notes to their pieces in the concert under their breath, occasionally giggling in nervousness. The Iinchou was quietly arguing in one back corner with Tabris, Lilim, Asuka, and Touji (Shinji was with the group as well, but he wasn't arguing). It had been decided that since their teacher wasn't going to be helping with this project that the class president would do the announcements. Hikari was always of the belief that since it was Tabris' and Shinji's idea that it would make more sense if they were the announcers. Asuka was on the Iinchou's side, and both Angelo's were against the idea. Firstly, they were not sure how Shinji would deal with that. Secondly, they didn't want to shove NERV in the faces of the community—a quiet quartet was one thing, but as an announcer it would be completely different. Thirdly, Horaki Hikari already knew the line up of the concert and who was doing what.

The audience's voice grew above the bustle of the backstage in their impatience as the time of the concert to begin was close at hand. The group of six moved towards the curtain and their arguing grew quieter. Finally Lilim gently pushed Hikari through the curtain and the remaining Eva pilots turned to organise the younger children so that they could perform the first piece. They didn't have a conductor, but small children rarely understood the point of one to begin with. Getting a signal from one of the stage crew the five older kids moved off to the side and helped to get the next act ready as the curtains opened.

The girl who opened the curtain was also charged with starting off the players; she counted to three to cue the beginning of the piece, her voice only heard by those on stage. The audience automatically quieted as the notes of precorders filled the air.

The concert went off without a hitch, most people too nervous to remember their own name let alone how to read music, and that was when the muscle memory kicked in. The result was beautiful. Some of the pieces were performed by one type of instrument, others a mixture of instruments it ranged from four players to every musician on stage.

Horaki Hikari stepped on stage at the end of the night to announce the String Quartet and their piece, "Our next piece is Ludwig von Beethoven's Ninth Symphonie: Ode an die Freude Which will be performed by our very own String Quartet, on Cello is Ikari Shinji, First Violin is Angelo Tabris, Second Violin is Souryuu Asuka, and on Viola Angelo Lilim."

She stepped aside and the curtains opened, it revealed a nearly empty stage with four chairs one occupied by Shinji. The brunet looked up at the crowd and then down at his instrument and struck a chord. It really wasn't part of the symphony it was just there to fill the air. Tabris walked out violin in hand sat down in the seat next to Shinji and added his own notes after looking up at the crowd. Next Asuka came out on stage, she smiled at the crowd the whole way to her chair, sat down and added the tone of her own violin. Finally out stepped Lilim, she sat down in the last chair and began to play Ode an die Freude; the others joined in.

_Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,  
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;  
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,  
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott._

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen  
Durch des Himmels Prächt'gen Plan,  
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,  
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.

As the last of the notes of the symphony rang out, the Iinchou stepped out on stage clarinet in hand she smiled at the clapping crowd and when they quieted announced, "Thank you for coming, we hope you enjoyed the show, now we would like to say good night."

Hikari stepped back and placed her clarinet to her lips, she began to play a typical good night/good-bye song that often ended concerts in the area. The String Quartet quickly picked up the tune and slowly the rest of the music club made their way on stage to play in the last song.

When all of the players were on the stage the stage crew students stepped out and stood in front and bowed. They moved back and waited for the last note to end. The audience were on their feet clapping the hard work of the students and after a prolonged moment the curtain gently closed and the students scattered—putting away their instruments and the props that had been used for the show.

The only people still sitting on stage were Shinji and Tabris. The silver-haired boy turned and smiled at the brunet, "You did a wonderful job tonight Shinji-koi."

The brunet turned red, like all those years ago, and Tabris gave him a winning smile. Shinji shifted his large instrument and leaned over kissing Tabris on the lips. It was an innocent kiss a simple pressure of lip on lip that lasted a prolonged moment.

There was a loud clatter as the folding chair that Asuka had intended to stack fell to the ground. Shinji and Tabris ignored it. The redhead's face became as red as her hair and she angrily stomped further backstage. Lilim glared at the retreating Second Child and followed her.

"Asuka stop!" yelled Lilim catching up with the taller girl.

"Go away Rei, you never were this outspoken before, why are you starting now," replied Asuka with a snarl not looking at the red-eyed girl.

Lilim glared at the back of Asuka's head, reached out with a hand and forced the ex-Eva pilot of unit 02 to look at her, red eyes narrowed and she stepped forward into the redhead's space, "We talked about this Asuka!"

Asuka took a step back, her back now to a wall, she glared down at the shorter girl, and said, "I still don't think that being gay is all right! I told you that."

"You're going to have to change your mind, then," replied Lilim slamming her hands on the wall on either side of Asuka.

"Why?" yelled Asuka!

Lilim leaned forward in one fast motion and pressed her lips to Asuka's before he redhead knew what was happening. There was a tense moment and then slowly the redhead relaxed against the wall and the shorter girl.

They didn't hear the cello and the violin begin to play.

_Freude, schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!_

_Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt._

Author's Note: So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	13. Juni

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least BL (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). There is some GL (girls kissin' and cuddlin'). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

So I completely spaced that last week had a Wednesday. Sorry

So this chapter contains a lime. I actually haven't head the terms lemon, lime, and citrus used in fanfiction for years. But I like them. So this chapter contains a gay lime. Which, for those who don't know is less than a lemon (a sex scene). A lime is similar to an implied lemon in an R rated movie. And in this particular lime there is still some clothing involved. So I hope you enjoy. I'll leave a warning right before the lime just in case you do not want to read it.

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-juni

Shinji woke up earlier than normal on a sunny Saturday morning he felt warm and happy and the fact that he had to get up didn't deter Shinji one bit. The arm around the brunet's waist flexed and the blue-eyed boy smiled and snuggled back into his silver-haired boyfriend. The arm tightened and a soft breath blew a puff in the brunet's ear, "Good morning Shinji-koi, Happy Birthday."

The Third Child snuggled in a little more and replied, "Good morning to you too, since it is my birthday do I get to choose what I do today?"

Tabris chuckled and replied, "It depends, what do you want to do?"

"Staying in bed," replied Shinji as he rolled over and buried his head in Tabris' shoulder.

The ex-angel laughed, pulled away from his love and sat up, "Well I'm sorry Shinji-koi but we have class."

The brunet groaned, rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, he listened to his boyfriend getting up and leaving the room and heading into the bathroom. When Shinji heard the red-eyed boy leave the bathroom he sat up and went into the bathroom to take care of his usual morning rituals.

Two out of the three apartment inhabitants (since Pen Pen moved back in with them after his vacation), were moving around the apartment with such efficiency and a sense of routine. Tabris cooked the food while Shinji packed up their school bags and the bento boxes for lunch. Since it was Shinji's birthday Tabris cooked all of the brunet's favourite foods which meant that a good portion of what had been meant for the bento box had ended up in Shinji's stomach, before breakfast.

The boys talked of little things; mostly it was Shinji trying to find out what Tabris had got him for his birthday, but the taller male wasn't letting on to the secret. After breakfast they picked up their bags and headed out the door and down to the street. They turned towards the school and walked to the end of the block, there the two Eva pilots waited for Touji and Hikari to come down the street. While they waited Shinji continued to try to get Tabris to surrender the secret of his birthday present.

They were interrupted when Shinji was grabbed around the shoulders and hugged by Hikari, who ignored the brunet boy stiffening in her arms and whispered, "Happy Birthday Shinji-kun."

"Aa, Happy Birthday Shinji," added Touji with a chuckle at the flustered looking birthday boy.

The two couples slowly sobered and turned towards their school and walked hand-in-hand with their partners to school. The conversation was light and quiet, Shinji had never been very talkative and that didn't change now.

The school day passed in a slow monotony that Shinji had always remembered. He sat in class next to Tabris who sat next to Lilim who sat next to Asuka. In the front of the class sat Hikari, who was the only one who was consistently taking notes; and next to her sat Touji, who looked as bored as ever. The teacher still droned on and on like he had done four years prior and that made Shinji wonder at the fact that at nineteen years of age he was still in secondary school. But not for much longer this was his last year and then from there he didn't know where he was going to go. Summer break was coming up in another month or so, even though there were no longer any seasons, the school systems never changed their pattern.

The up-and-coming summer break was going to involve a mini-vacation according to Tabris and a lot of research into their future. All of the Eva pilots had this odd veteran status that basically meant that as long as they planned on a modest life they would never have to work. If they ever wanted to travel anywhere they would have a free NERV transport. NERV also promised to pay for any university that they may want to go to. Both education and travel cost were some sort of severance pay or forcing fifteen-year-olds to be soldiers and for leaving them with no family (not that that was really NERV's fault but Tabris and Lilim weren't going to say anything, and Touji, Shinji, and Asuka had yet to make the connection). And if they ever planned on going into any form of military or work for NERV once more they would start as a ranking officer and their opinion concerning any experiments and run-ins similar to the Angel incident would have heavy sway. All in all they all had a lot to think about and Tabris and Shinji had designated their summer break, even though it was a bit late in the year. Since their school no longer had an academic counsellor they felt that they were doing well.

Lunch came around and the usual group—now with Lilim snuggled up close to Asuka so she could silence the occasional gay-bashing comments with a kiss—sat under their usual tree. This particular meal also included Yuya and Kagura who had jointly dawn a portrait of Shinji and Tabris in a heart for Shinji's birthday. Everyone else was waiting for the surprise party that Pen Pen was setting up in Tabris and Shinji's apartment to give their presents. But Shinji didn't mind or even realise that he was lacking in presents other than that from Tabris and just smiled and thanked the two young boys.

At the end of the school day it seemed that everyone rushed out of the classroom and Tabris took Shinji's hand and brought the brunet the long way home. The ex-angel had them walk by the waterfront where they had first met and on a lazy walk around the edge of the city. Slowly they made their way home.

The apartment was dark, so Shinji just assumed that Pen Pen was out. Tabris unlocked the door and opened it for Shinji who stepped in, dropped his bag and began taking of his shoes by the light of the outside hallway. Tabris stepped in behind him, once he saw the blue-eyed boy was out of his shoes, shut the door and flicked on the light.

"Surprise! Happy Brirthday Shinji!" everyone yelled. Shinji jumped back and fell into Tabris who easily caught him and put him back on his feet. Blue eyes were wide a bit shocked and scared as he starred at his friend standing there in the kitchen. There was a meal set out on the table, Shinji could see a cake on the sideboard and presents on the counter. It was a pregnant moment that the ex-Eva pilot of 01 took to take in the whole scene and comprehend it. The smiling faces of Lilim, Asuka, Touji, Hikari, and Pen Pen. After a moment Tabris began to rub Shinji's tense shoulders in an attempt to make the smaller man relax.

It worked, the brunet burst into a big grin, "Sugoi! You guys didn't have to do this for me."

Hikari smiled, "We wanted to."

"Aa man, don't worry about it," replied Touji a bit nonchalant, "now get over here and let's eat Hikari made us all help with the cooking, and we weren't allowed to try anything until you got here."

Shinji starred at his friends for a moment, glanced at the table and then back up at his friends, he burst out laughing. Soon the whole room was laughing and sitting down at the table. They all turned to look at the table head where Shinji sat; his big blue eyes were taking in the various foods. When he realised that everyone was quiet and looking at him Shinji returned their looks until Tabris nudged him and he blushed before saying, "Itadakimasu."

The table chorused, "Itadakimasu." And everyone began to eat. The conversation was light and reminded Shinji of their lunch time discussions. Everyone was happy and smiling and the small brunet had to pause and look around just to watch his happy friends. He thought of Kagura and Yuya, and the rest of the kids in their class and all their smiling faces, he remembered the proud and smiling faces of the audience—of the community—at the concert. And this Shinji realised was what he had fought for—the Human race.

Some part deep down inside told him that all the humans died, and all that was left were lilin, a couple clones, a penguin, Touji, Hikari, Asuka, and him. But right in that moment Shinji couldn't help but feel proud. So what if they weren't what some higher being called human, through the survivors the thoughts, ideals, emotions, and ambitions of the humans remained and that is what mattered most—that he was happy, and because of his efforts all of these people were happy too.

Tabris placed his hand over the still brunet's hand and squeezed it, he then whispered, "Are you all right?"

Blue eyes turned and stared into red eyes, "Aa, I'm just happy."

"I'm glad," answered Tabris who squeezed Shinji's hand once more and turned back to their guests.

The night progressed; the meal finished, the cake eaten and the presents were opened. Shinji was given a lot of photos from each of his friends. Most were from before; there was one of the String Quartet and another that had been taken just before the quartet had been formed: Tabris and Shinji's heads were bent together as they played their instruments. There was a couple of Misato, Asuka, Pen Pen, and Shinji from Pen Pen. Hikari always the practical one had gotten Shinji a bunch of different photo frames: one was large and would hold a dozen photos, there was a bunch of smaller novelty frames things that said stuff like friends and family. Tabris gave Shinji a photo of his mother holding a baby Shinji (The doctor's on the American cloning project had pictures of Shinji through all his stages of development so they could monitor their success in that respect. Tabris had taken a few of the photos when he left Nevada and was just waiting for a good time to present them). They all pitched in and bought Shinji and updated digital music storing/playing device.

Eventually everyone had to leave, Pen Pen retired to his refrigerator and Tabris and Shinji walked everyone to the door. Shinji thanked and hugged everyone good night. As the door shut behind the group of friends the apartment was plunged into silence.

The two remaining boys turned around and went back to the kitchen looking at all the dishes in the sink. Shinji groaned and Tabris smiled, "I believe the dishes can wait until tomorrow, bed?"

The brunet smiled, "Bed."

**~*~Lime Begins Here (if you don't know to what I refer scroll up and read the author's note and then come back). If you don't wish to read the chapter ends here~*~**

The boys took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed. Shinji went first brushing his teeth and thinking about what he really wanted to do for his birthday. And the thoughts made him nervous. With a light blush staining his cheeks Shinji left the bathroom and went into the bedroom to get ready for bed, and a pyjama clad Tabris went into the bathroom.

Shinji stared at their futons lying next to each other like one large bed. Taking a deep breath the brunet stripped down to his boxers and got under the one large blanket that the boys shared. Shinji pulled the blanket up to his chin and nervously watched the door for his boyfriend.

Tabris entered the bedroom, saw Shinji already in bed and flipped out the lights before gingerly making his way across the room to the futons. The ex-angel got under the covers and put his arm over his boyfriend shocked to meet bare skin at Shinji's torso. Tabris pulled back momentarily before running his hands up and down the brunets back, "Shinji-koi?"

The smaller boy rolled over, closer to his boyfriend's body and so he was able to see the taller boy's face. Shinji could feel the blush spread across his whole body, and he knew that even in the dark Tabris had to see it as well. Taking a deep breath Shinji looked up into red eyes and fiddled with the hem of the silver-haired boy's shirt. The brunet whispered, willing the other to understand, "Karou." And then he leaned forward the rest of the way and kissed the older boy.

The kiss was chaste and sweet much like Shinji himself. When Tabris heard a chocked half-sob, he realised what exactly Shinji was asking for and unable to take himself. Rolling a little bit so that he was partial on top of the smaller boy, Tabris opened his mouth and licked Shinji's bottom lip. The brunet was more confident now that Tabris had asserted his control over the situation and without any thought opened his mouth to the questing tongue. The ex-angel took his time memorising the person below him, the taste and feel of his mouth, the sound of his heart beat and it quickened its rhythm, the feel of naked shoulders under his hands in such an intimate touch.

Shinji shifted so that his body was more firmly under his boyfriend's body. His hands went back to tugging on the t-shirt that the elder boy wore. One hand reached up under the shirt and stroked the skin of Tabris' back while the other continued tugging.

Tabris pulled back for air and looked down at his boyfriend and smiled as he studied the flushed face and heard the disappointed groan. With a bright smile Tabris sat up and shifted so he was seated between Shinji's legs and pulled off his t-shirt. Red eyes took a moment to drink in the sight of Shinji breathing hard and sending him a pleading look. The silver-haired boy lowered his hands to his boyfriend's torso and slowly began to lightly stroke his navel. Blue eyes watched intensely, as those long fingered hands moved slowly upwards stroking ribs and settling on the smaller boy's nipples. Tabris flicked one into a hard nub and then the second. Shinji's breath caught and his eyes fluttered shut.

Keeping up the stimulation, Tabris leaned down and began to kiss the brunet again. Pale legs moved up around the ex-angel's waits and pulled him down flush against Shinji's body. Both ex-Eva pilots groaned at the new contact and Tabris pulled back breaking the kiss and rolling his hips a bit making blue eyes roll back.

The elder dipped back down to kiss his boyfriend again when the brunet whispered, "Ai'shitero yo Karou-koi."

Tabris paused and looked down at Shinji with a grin, he waited for a moment until unsure blue eyes met his own and answered, "Ai'shitero yo Shinji-koi." Then Tabris leaned down and kissed Shinji in the same moment he rolled his hips.

As the two boys got lost in each other, they began to hear music. Nothing that would get them to stop or even pause, but a tune they heard nonetheless.

_Seid umschlungen, Millionen!  
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!  
Brüder über'm Sternenzelt  
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen._

_Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?  
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?  
Such'ihn über'm Sternenzelt!  
__Über Sternen muss er wohnen_

Author's Note: So what do you think? See you next week. Please review.

-Na


	14. Jusan

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Seiki Evangelion it was created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or the song Ode an die Freude the Lyrics belong to Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and the  
Music belongs to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Ninth Symphony. So Welcome to the Wonderful World of Fanfiction.

Warning: So if you didn't know this fic contains at least BL (guys kissin' and cuddlin') and possibly YAOI (explicit sex scenes between guys). There is some GL (girls kissin' and cuddlin'). And implied suicide attempts.

Author's Note: the translated lyrics to Ode an die Freude or Ode to Joy at the website (remove spaces): http:/ www. assamites. de/odetojoy. html

So this is it, and it is my most song ficcy chapter ever enjoy!

Happy Reading!

-Na

Elysium

Chaputa-jusan

_Freude, Schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!_

Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.  


They were all in the music room; it was a bit before mid-spring not that anyone could tell anymore. This was no longer the time that students saw their love interest one last time in a rain of Sakura blooms before the graduation ceremony. Or the time when one caught a glimpse at their true loves in the same Sakura fall before even knowing their name, before the enrolment ceremony.

Regardless of the actual physical being of a season it was still March, and they were still graduating. The six of them, they were all that was left, and now as young adults old enough for university they were graduating secondary school. Six graduates the smallest class yet to graduate, the first to do so in this school, since the final impact. An audience of no one, not a family member left.

They were chatting, postponing, afraid and excited. There was a whole world out there, in various states of rebuilding. They were trained for nothing useful now—after, wanted only for their pure-blooded status, something nearly useless now.

_Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,  
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,  
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,  
Mische seinen Jubel ein!_

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele  
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!  
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle  
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!  


These six were treated differently put on a pedestal, hidden away, mocked and envied. When they thought their lives and decisions were their own, someone came to prove them wrong. People, adults, and survivors of an organisation that thought they knew best. The six were told their graduation had been postponed; and it was all Shinji's fault. And the brunet, the one who saved them all with their impure-blood, he would have been executed (a grand secret just now revealed, now that Shinji was well enough to understand the words) but he spoke, and stopped that plan. So they waited and watched and held the last of the pure-human race and their clones back. Back, until either the brunet pilot of 01 was better or proved to be a useless endeavour and executed.

This knowledge distressed the brunet on what should be a happy day and angered the rest. So here were the six; the last humans and their clones hiding in the music room talking of nothing and everything late for their own graduation ceremony.

"You know they are discussing not letting you graduate if you do not show up to the ceremony soon?" asked a voice from the door. Twelve eyes turned and looked at the brunet women with the hard dark eyes leaning on the door frame.

_Freude trinken alle Wesen  
An den Brüsten der Natur;  
Alle Guten, alle Bösen  
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur._

Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,  
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;  
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,  
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.  


"Kaji Yayoi," whispered Tabris.

The brunet women nodded and stepped into the room she surveyed all of the children one at a time before her brown eyes landed on Tabris she smiled and said, "Well done brat."

Tabris chuckled, Shinji cowards, and Lilim glared and asked, "What does NERV want now?"

"To congratulate you six of course," replied Yayoi.

The room was silent and the NERV representative pulled out a thick packet of papers and said, "There is one here for each of you," Yayoi cleared her throat and read the first sheet of paper, "Angelo Lilim/Ayanami Rei you have hereby been honourably discharged as a pilot and agent of the NERV organisation. As a severance for your exemplary service in the field NERV is guaranteeing: All spare genetic material has been destroyed. All travel, housing, education and extra medical expenses will be paid for by NERV for you and any descendents. You are entitled to and will receive a veterans pay, deposited monthly in you Zürich International Bank account. NERV will no longer attempt to contact you or your descendents, ever—unless in case of an emergency or by request," Yayoi stopped reading and looked up at the six youths, "It goes on of course for another couple pages clarifying things, but you get the gist. There is one for each of you, wording may have changed slightly since we don't have any genetic material on file for Souryuu Asuka or Horaki Hikari, and Horaki Hikari was never a pilot."

All six of the youths just nodded dumbly in shock and then Touji asked, "What constitutes as an emergency?"

"They are all listed here," replied Yayoi scanning the packet of paper, "If any long term effect of being a pilot are discovered, or if an assignation plot is discovered. There are a few others along the same lines"

"Why do I have one?" asked Hikari.

"You're Eve, now and that makes you important," replied Yayoi.

Tabris scoffed, "That's rich coming from a bunch of Lilin and half-humans. And yet no one cares about that, only NERV (after years of research) and God can tell the difference. And yet you not even directly affected still care about the blood purity."

"Well that is just it, NERV when it employed the pilots was there to stop god's plans and now that god has won, NERV is here to preserve god's plan," replied Yayoi.

The room was silent for a moment when Asuka said, "I'm not signing anything until I read the papers through."

Yayoi passed out everyone's forms and handed each of them a pen, "If you don't sign NERV will be free to contact you, your discharge revoked. So don't take too long to read those. I need to bring them back and you need to graduate."

_Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen  
Durch des Himmels Prächt'gen Plan,  
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,  
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen._

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

The room was quiet as everyone read their own packet, and one-by-one they picked up the pens and signed the forms—forms that had been written by NERV, which would force NERV out of the lives of the ex-pilots and the new Eve. No one moved until everyone had signed and handed the forms back to Yayoi.

The group of six glanced around the music room and double checked that they had everything and then they headed for the door Kaji Yayoi yelled after them, "Asuka, Shinji! You might want to consider surrogacy and sperm donation to have children in the future, of course with each other, you know continue the human race and all."

All six paused and Tabris turned around and replied, "It would be better for humanity once they have rebuilt their civilization and fallen from god's path once more; if god can no longer separate out the Lilin from the humans."

"Right," said Yayoi a bit dejected sounding, "I'll see you."

They didn't stop. All six future graduates continued to walk down the hall and Shinji called back, "No, you won't."

And they were gone from the hall, moments later they would be gone from the school, and out in the world to blend in with the other survivors, to never stand out or be considered special again—to be free.

And don't you know that living one's life happily, peacefully, and to the fullest, with those whom one loves, is its own Elysium.

_Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt._

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!  
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!  
Brüder über'm Sternenzelt  
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?  
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?  
Such'ihn über'm Sternenzelt!  
_Über Sternen muss er wohnen_

Author's Note: So what do you think? This is it. I want to thank everyone who stuck with this fic. And I hope you enjoyed it. Please review.

-Na


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